Providence electronic musician and multimedia artist Bevin Kelley, aka Blevin Blectum, is showcasing her work in the Fine Arts Center’s main gallery weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. through Dec. 16, 2016.
The showcase will feature a live performance on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
A main exhibit “This is Not a Horse” is a piece that was commissioned for the “Captiaine Futu” series at La Gaite Lyrique, in Paris, France. The exhibit features a horse-like costume made of cardboard and an audio/visual display on the television. The narration for this piece was done by Rcahel Rozenkrantz, the video by Junell, the sound by Blectum, and the costume by Fausto Caceres. There will be a second commissioned chapter of the series in the same venue in June of 2017.
“Gular Flutter/Solar Rattle: The Work and Vision of Blevin Blectum” is comprised of different styles of multimedia art projects. Blectum’s work “combines sound, imagery, and costume to create eccentric and mesmerizing performances and studio work, which explore topics from science fiction to ornithology.”
Some of the pieces in the gallery are individual projects of Blectum’s, but for the most part, the works are collaborative pieces. Blectum said she specializes in “unique collaborative projects with other musicians, artists and clothing designers.”
Blectum has set up four “listening stations” with an iPod and headphones for attendants to listen to her electronic music albums. The stations have music ranging from her first efforts and early albums in 1998 to songs produced this year. She also displays two stations with small televisions which play her multimedia projects and a main projection display.
One of the televisions rotates between two music videos of an “audio-video Carl Sagan tribute band” comprised of Blectum and collaborator Ryan Junell.
The showcase features various projects of Blectum’s, collections of her audio and video projects, as well as some graphic design work. There are costume pieces on mannequins displayed throughout the gallery as well as sculptures, some of these costumes and sculptures are used for performances.
The show is curated by Jacob Richman, URI Adjunct Professor of Video and Multimedia in the Department of Art and Art History.