Innovative artistic residencies mark exciting fall lineup at the Moody

Matthew Ritchie, Silkroad Ensemble bring celebrated cross-disciplinary collaborations to campus

An artist whose acclaimed works are the product of cross-disciplinary collaborations with scientists, engineers, musicians, architects and programmers is taking over the Moody Center for the Arts this fall. In addition to a site-specific installation with a virtual reality (VR) component that will span two galleries in the Moody, Matthew Ritchie’s work will also extend across campus to 10 different Rice University classrooms during his 2 1/2-month residency.

Commissioned specifically to be in dialogue with the Skyspace, composer George Lewis’s “Remains of the Sky (2018)” will run through Nov. 4. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

“As the Brad and Leslie Bucher Artist-in-Residence, (Ritchie) will be on campus working with students and visitors throughout the fall, bringing the work to life and engaging with a diverse array of classes including literary theory, math and musical composition,” said Alison Weaver, the Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director of the Moody Center.

“Matthew Ritchie: The Demon in the Diagram” launches the Moody’s fall programming Sept. 21. Ritchie will offer an all-day, open-to-the-public print workshop under the direction of master printmaker Patrick Masterson and Rice University Printing Professor Karin Broker Sept. 25, hosted by the Visual and Dramatic Arts department, and will give an artist-in-dialogue talk Oct. 25.

Additionally, the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble has been engaged for a three-year residency at Rice in partnership with the Moody and the Boniuk Institute, with generous support from the June B. and Brian J. Zwan Visiting Distinguished Scholar Endowment. The Silkroad Ensemble, founded by internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, will perform at the Moody Sept. 24 as part of a panel discussion on arts and leadership led by the director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, Tom Kolditz. The ensemble, comprised of musicians representing dozens of nationalities and artistic traditions, will also participate in a public panel on cultural diplomacy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy Sept. 26.

“We couldn’t be more excited about the ways in which the arts are integrating into campus life, from discussions of leadership to academic courses to public programs,” said Weaver.

Schedule and programming:

“Matthew Ritchie: The Demon in the Diagram”

Sept. 21-Dec. 22.
A public opening reception will be 6-8 p.m. Sept. 21. A student opening reception will be 7-9 p.m. Sept. 22. Ritchie will present an artist-in-dialogue discussion at 6 p.m. Oct. 25.
Brown Foundation and Central galleries, Moody Center for the Arts

Matthew Ritchie

British-born, New York-based artist Matthew Ritchie’s site-specific “The Demon in the Diagram” includes paintings, lightboxes, an interactive floor and audio work commissioned for the Moody alongside a VR component. As an exploration of the structures created to map the history of time in the same way Ritchie’s earlier projects examined graphic diagrams of space, this exhibition includes elements from Ritchie’s newest body of work, “Time Diagrams,” an ambitious 100-part sequence of diagrammatic works that attempt to chronicle structural features of human thought over the past 5,000 years.

Audiences are invited to engage with two interactive elements commissioned for the Moody. The first is a collaborative 3D sculptural environment that explores music and pedagogy through an interactive soundscape created with Ritchie’s longtime collaborators: musicians Kelley Deal, lead guitarist of the Breeders, and noted composer and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn. The second is an immersive work that inverts the familiar role of VR by open-casting any viewer as a performer, a ghostlike figure nestled inside the demon.

This project, Ritchie’s most complex to date, has been designed specifically for the Moody’s galleries as an open experiment in pedagogy. Both visitors and students will have the opportunity to participate in many aspects of the installation. For example, they can contribute to a durational musical work that will evolve over the fall months. The combination of elements will immerse the viewer in Ritchie’s creative vision of human history as a debatable and reconfigurable space, while encouraging the hands-on exploration of multiple systems of meaning.

“Dimensions Variable”

Oct. 27, 6 p.m.
Brown Foundation and Central galleries, Moody Center for the Arts

Hope Mohr Dance

In response to “Matthew Ritchie: The Demon in the Diagram,” San Francisco-based choreographer Hope Mohr and members of her company, in residence for a week, will perform an original work.

Mohr and her corps will present a performance that spans two gallery spaces. Kelley Deal and Evan Ziporyn, who collaborated with Ritchie to design an interactive soundscape for “The Demon in the Diagram,” will perform together while discussing the nature of the project.

Silkroad Ensemble: Music and Conversation

“Art and Leadership,” Sept. 24, 6:30 p.m.
“Building Bridges through Cultural Diplomacy,” Sept. 26, 6 p.m.

Silkroad Ensemble (Photo copyright Liz Linder Photography)

Facilitated through their residency at Rice, Silkroad Ensemble will collaborate with a number of Houston arts organizations including Houston Grand Opera; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Menil Collection; Rothko Chapel; Asia Society Texas and the High School for Performing and Visual Arts.

Following a Sept. 21 performance at the Rothko in observation of International Day of Peace, Rice will host Silkroad Ensemble for two nights of events that are free and open to the public.

The first is a performance at the Moody Sept. 24 followed by a panel discussion exploring the role of the arts in leadership. Panelists include Michael O’Malley, author of “Every Leader is an Artist;” Perryn Leach, managing director of Houston Grand Opera; and Silkroad musicians. The discussion will be moderated by Tom Kolditz, director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders.

Silkroad Ensemble will also participate in a panel on citizenship and culture at the Baker Institute for Public Policy Sept. 26. The discussion on the importance of culture in diplomatic discourse will include Ellen Susman, a former director of the Art in Embassies program, and musicians from the Silkroad Ensemble. Ambassador Edward Djerejian, director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy, will introduce the panel, which will be moderated by Alison Weaver, executive director of the Moody Center for the Arts.

“An Evening of Graphic Scores and Avant-Garde Jazz”

Oct. 11, 7 p.m.
Lois Chiles Studio Theater

Karlton Hester (Photo copyright Norma Cordova)

The Moody presents an unforgettable evening of jazz as world-renowned musicians Karlton Hester, Motoko Honda, Vinny Golia, Danny Kamins and Garrett Wingfield perform together for one night only.

Improvising from graphic scores projected in the Lois Chiles Studio Theater, the musicians will present compositions that unfold in unexpected yet collaborative ways. This event is free and open to the public.

“New Art / New Music”

Oct. 13, 3 p.m.
Brown Foundation and Central galleries

This unique concert experience presents students from the Shepherd School of Music as they perform works of the 20th and 21st centuries in the intimate setting of one of the Moody’s galleries. This semester, “Matthew Ritchie: The Demon in the Diagram” serves as inspiration for music that is then performed alongside the artwork. This event is free and open to the public.

“George Lewis: Creative Construction Set^TM(2015)”

Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Lois Chiles Studio Theater

George Lewis

Experimental music pioneer George Lewis will participate in two programs at Rice this fall. For his first, Lewis will be joined onstage at the Moody’s Lois Chiles Studio Theater by an ensemble of 10 musicians from the Shepherd School of Music and Nameless Sound.

“Creative Construction Set^TM(CCS^TM)”is a mobile, open-form, open-instrumentation work for an ensemble of eight or more musical performers who use a set of instruction cards to create and explore sonic environments. In “CCS^TM,” musical decisions are produced via social relations, where discontinuity, support and struggle become audible pathways to larger lessons for societies seeking to remain open to change and justice. This event is free and open to the public.

Co–presented by the Moody Center for the Arts and Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs (REMLABS) at the Shepherd School of Music. This project is made possible by the Arts Initiative Fund at Rice University and Nameless Sound.

“George Lewis: Remains of the Sky”

Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.
James Turrell “Twilight Epiphany” Skyspace

Lewis’s second project at Rice takes its inspiration from the James Turrell “Twilight Epiphany” Skyspace and Houston’s notoriously temperamental weather.

Commissioned specifically to be in dialogue with the Skyspace, the composer’s “Remains of the Sky (2018)” is both a sound and light installation. A computer program designed by Lewis and realized by musician and software developer Damon Holzborn collects local weather data from the area around the Skyspace, then translates and compresses that information into a synaesthetic performance of color, multichannel sound and rhythm. The audience is invited to move about the space during the sound and light installation and create their own experience.

“Remains of the Sky” is 40 minutes in duration and is ongoing through Nov. 4, immediately following daily sunset light sequences. This event is free and open to the public.

Organized in collaboration with Rice Public Art, REMLABS at the Shepherd School of Music and Nameless Sound. This project is made possible by the Arts Initiative Fund at Rice University.

Moody Movie Night

Nov. 30, 6 p.m., students only
Dec. 1, 6 p.m., public invited

The Moody celebrates the last day of classes for the fall semester with back-to-back nightly screenings of two Wes Anderson films, “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” on the Moody’s west lawn. Popcorn will be served. The event is free.

For more information on upcoming events at the Moody, visit http://moody.rice.edu.