Closing Soon: Nick Roth's 'Fates' At San Diego Museum Of Art
Visual Art
Closing this weekend at the San Diego Museum of Art is a fascinating installation by contemporary Los Angeles-based artist Nick Roth. It's a tryptic of video panels that loop a computer-generated animation. Each of the three panels represents a fate; vines, stems, grotesque eyeballs and crimson thread emerge and tangle across the screens to signify life, time and destiny. It's pretty mesmerizing and it's installed in a small, darkened room, with mirrors set up to reflect it infinitely.
San Diego Museum of Art has made some significant moves lately to showcase more experimental pieces. But Roth said he was mindful of the space — of being surrounded by old masters — and that's why he drew these animations to look like thousands of brush strokes. It's really cool to see works like this at the museum.
The animation is accompanied by a looped recording of a Terry Riley composition, "Sun Rings: Earth Whistlers," performed by the Kronos Quartet. It's beautiful, haunting orchestral and choral music but it also includes actual space sounds — blips and squeals recorded from NASA's plasma wave receivers on the Voyager probe missions. I love that it combines a 2,000-year-old myth story of the fates with something so futuristic.
Details: On display through Sunday at the San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park; find hours and admission information here.
The San Diego Symphony: Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Texu Kim
Music
The San Diego Symphony will perform Sibelius and Rachmaninoff alongside living composer Texu Kim this weekend. Guest conducting is Eun Sun Kim, who was recently announced as the new director of the San Francisco Opera, and will be the first Asian woman at the helm of an opera in the United States.
They'll perform Sibelius' "Violin Concerto in D Minor," Rachmaninoff's "Symphony No. 3 in A Minor," and a new piece, Texu Kim's "Spin-Flip." It debuted in Seoul in 2015 and has been played just a few other times in the United States. In fact, one of those other performances was with Eun Sun Kim. It's inspired by the game of ping-pong and the scientific phenomenon of "spin-flip," and you can read my feature about the pieces here.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St, downtown; find tickets here.
Høurs 'Who Will Meet Me Here' Album Release
Music
San Diego band Høurs was formed about 5 years ago by guitarist and vocalist Carrie Gillespie Feller and bassist Scott Feller, with Rostam Zafar on drums and Josh Quon on guitar. "Who Will Meet Me Here" is their first full-length album, out today, and it's heavy, but not in an in-your-face sort of way. Their sound is dark and curious, kind of liturgical, kind of experimental, kind of metal, kind of not. It's atmospheric and has quite the range: these songs are long and simmering.
Every so often there's something stripped down and pure, almost glass-like about Carrie Gillespie Feller's voice. I think that's what sets Høurs apart, a pretty classic dark and immersive sound with lyrics about rage and the apocalypse but then it cuts away to something more quiet and fragile. One song, "Tracks" really plays up that contrast between the gloom and Gillespie Feller's voice with layered harmonies.
Høurs will celebrate the album release Friday alongside Los Pinche Pinches, d.wrex and Meager.
Details: 9 p.m. Friday. Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave, City Heights; more information here.
For more San Diego arts and culture events and news, visit the KPBS/Arts calendar andsign up for the KPBS/Arts newsletter, delivered every Thursday.
