Due to weather, Sound for Silents will take place in the McGuire Theater. Tickets for this free event will be available at the Hennepin Lobby box office at 7 pm.
This year’s Sound for Silents features a live musical performance, in the year of the parable, from genre-hopping multi-instrumentalist composer deVon Russell Gray. Join us for an electrifying evening of commissioned new music performed by a special ensemble—which includes Ariadne Greif, Davu Seru, Nathan Hanson, and Andrew Broder—paired with films from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Sound installation by James Everest and deVon Gray. This free event is open to all.
The event starts at 7 pm, with music from DJ Sarah White in Cityview Bar. Doors open at 7:30 pm; the screening starts at 8 pm.
Bios
ABOUT DEVON RUSSELL GRAY
Composer and performer deVon Russell Gray is perhaps best known as dVRG in the acclaimed hip-hop band Heiruspecs. They approach any new composition, performance, or creative endeavor believing fundamentally in starting from a place of “I know nothing.” Embracing the idea that empty vessels receive new knowledge more efficiently, Gray constantly seeks a transformative process to expand his artistic horizons. Despite being at a perpetual crossroads, he remains steadfast in his pursuit of new music, honoring the contributions of his ancestors and drawing inspiration from the forward-thinking creators who came before him. Gray made his mark as a composer with the lead single on pianist Lara Downes’s latest album Love at Last (Pentatone), which topped the Billboard Classical and Classical Crossover charts. Most recently, he received his second composer fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, an esteemed recognition administered by the American Composers Forum.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Diane Kitchen is an experimental filmmaker. Her work in film bridges documentary, personal expression, and cultural commentary. Past screening venues of her work include the Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, Montreal’s First Peoples’ Festival, Vancouver’s Aboriginal Film & Video Festival, Denmark’s Indigenous Encounter of the Americas, the Whitney Biennial, London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, San Francisco Cinematheque, the Pacific Film Archive, and the Walker Art Center. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and retired from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2011, after teaching in the Peck School of the Arts Film Department for 27 years.
American director Dudley Murphy (1897–1968) began making films in the early 1920s following his career as a journalist. His eighth film Ballet mécanique, codirected with artist Fernand Léger in 1924, is considered one of the early accomplishments of experimental filmmaking. In 2015, the Library of Congress named his short film Black and Tan Fantasy to the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her work arises out of long periods of observation and documentation, in which the camera is present as an object with social implications and as an instrument mediating aesthetic thought. Santiago Muñoz’s recent work has been concerned with post-military land, Haitian poetics, and the sensorial unconscious of anti-colonial movements. Recent solo exhibitions include Song, Strategy, Sign at the New Museum, New York; A Universe of Fragile Mirrors at the Pérez Art Museum of Miami; MATRULLA, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, México City; Post-Military Cinema, Glasgow International; and the Black Cave, Gasworks, London. Her work is included in public and private collections, such as the Whitney Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Kadist.
About the Films
Wot the Ancient Sod by Diane Kitchen
Life and light converge into seamless images, forming intimate portraits of the sun through the lens of autumn leaves. From the sod, “forces are in transition,” simultaneously decaying back again into the earth. 2001, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 17 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
Otros Usos by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
This film was shot by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz at a former US Naval base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, which has become a site for local fishermen. Created with her camera pointed through a glass prism, the image of the landscape is distorted, reflected, and multiplied. 2014, Puerto Rico, 16mm transferred to digital, 7 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
Black and Tan Fantasy by Dudley Murphy
Duke Ellington and his orchestra make their first film appearance as a jazz band alongside actress Fredi Washington, both depicting emerging Black artists of New York City’s 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Within the roaring backdrop of the Cotton Club, Ellington serenades his ailing wife to a peaceful slumber. 1929, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 19 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
St. Louis Blues by Dudley Murphy
In her hit dramatization of W.C. Handy’s song “St. Louis Blues,” Bessie Smith stars as a lamenting woman of the Speakeasy era, singing as her heartless lover drifts away. 1929, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 19 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
Accessibility
For information about accessibility or to request additional accommodations for this program, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.
For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.
Before Your Visit
Paid underground parking is available on-site. Enter the ramp on Vineland Place at Bryant Avenue. Biking or taking Metro Transit? Learn more.
Visiting the galleries? Enhance your experience by joining a public tour or with self-guided resources accessible for free on Bloomberg Connects.
Personal photography is permitted throughout the Walker and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, but please turn off the flash when visiting the galleries.
To help us promote future events and programs, this event may be photographed or recorded. By attending, you consent to appear in this documentation and its future use by the museum. Please let staff know upon arrival if you prefer not to be photographed.