Rub a Dub Dub is irreverent confrontation with aging and its accompanying advance of wisdom and foolishness. The performance juxtaposes irony and utter sincerity, the whole is soaked in pathos. Koetsch appears simultaneously as wise man, fool, and Buddha. The event ends appropriately in bone ash on a burning ground–Koetsch’s signature action.
The sound artists MARC BISSON and DEI XHRIST accompany Koetsch on his journey, laying down a soundscape that includes riffs on Indian ragas (played on a beat up electric guitar), distorted vocalizations, noise, and improvised eruptions. The duo will perform a second set of pure sound art following Koetsch’s performance.
THE PERFORMERS
GEOFFREY KOETSCH
The multi-disciplinary artist Geoffrey Koetsch has performed and exhibited in the Boston area for over thirty years. First trained in theater, he has since worked in media as diverse as sculpture, installation, performance, photography, artists books, and participatory and public art. He was co-founder of the international touring company The Theater of Kinetic Sculpture (World Sculpture Racing), and the underground experimental group The Metropolitan Artists and Poets, an artist’s collective devoted to word/image collaborations. His most recent work, The Preparation (2013), was performed at The First Biennial of Sound art and Performance Art held at THE QUARRY, a center for experimental art and music in Acton Massachusetts. Koetsch work has been sponsored by such organizations as the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, SoNo (CT) Arts Festival, Cambridge River Festival, First Night Boston, the art museums of Fitchburg and Springfield MA, and other venues here and abroad.
DEI XHRIST AND MARC BISSON
Collaborating with Koetsch are the two well known Manchester based sound
artists and performers Marc Bisson and Dei Xhrist. The duo are best known in
the region for their work with the bands Grau Garten, and BiRdOrGaN.
Bisson’s specialty is a tabletop guitar that he modifies with “preparations” to achieve a variety of sounds and effects. “I lay the guitar flat, and put different things in the strings, such a kitchen utensils, glass bottles and alligator clips.”
Dei Xhrist is a multidisciplinary artist who works with sound
(primarily voice), performance, concrete poetry and a variety two dimensional
media. Xhrist and Bisson make frequent appearances at 119 Gallery in Lowell,
and the two recently performed with BiRdOrGaN at the First Biennial Festival of
Sound Art and Performance Art at THE QUARRY.