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Gallery Listening Sessions
Clocking In: 2024 Arts/Industry Residents installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2024.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
6:00–7:00 p.m.
In the Clocking In: 2024 Arts/Industry Residents exhibition
Free
All Ages
Join us in the gallery to listen to UMM / AL ATLAL emanating from Sahar Khoury’s sculpture the first Thursday evening of the month, April through June 2024. This collaborative sound piece was composed by Esra Canoğulları and Lara Sarkissian.
Khoury’s monumental work Untitled (radio clock tower with accessories) was inspired in part by Radio Cairo, the national Egyptian radio station. Radio Cairo broadcasted live performances by Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (c.1904–1975) on the first Thursday of each month. Lyrics from the singer’s song “At Atlal” (The Ruins) are formed in clay and embellish Khoury’s mixed-media sculpture.
Canoğulları and Sarkissian collaborated to create an hour-long piece that deconstructs and abstracts a recorded live performance of Kulthum’s song “Al Atlal.” Kulthum was known for live performances that lasted hours, with individual songs lasting up to an hour each. Crowd participation played an essential role in these durational and enchanting live shows. UMM / AL ATLAL takes a similar approach to abstraction as Khoury’s sculpture by isolating and embedding individual lyrics while reinterpreting their form.
Programming such as Gallery Listening Sessions and the 50th Anniversary of Arts/Industry is supported by the Kohler Trust for Arts and Education, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, Kohler Co., the Frederic Cornell Kohler Charitable Trust, Kohler Foundation, Inc., and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Arts/Industry is a unique collaboration between the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co.
