Wednesday, December 7th, 8pm ET, ISSUE is pleased to invite members and special guests to a reception and intimate conversation between Canadian artist and vocalist Mary Margaret O'Hara and her brother, “sculptor, artist, actor, storyteller, funnyman” Marcus O’Hara. The conversation will be followed by a reception with complimentary beer and wine.
Known for her spiritual and feverish songwriting, Mary Margaret O’Hara has influenced generations of experimental musicians through her unique combination of avant-garde techniques with elements of gospel, soul, and jazz. O’Hara’s vocal stylings are performed in overlapping arrangements with sophisticated instrumentation, meditative atmospheres, and cathartic outbreaks. Her singular approach develops an open songcraft where the intensity of a ballad can spontaneously pivot to rollicking rhythm-and-blues.
A noir masterpiece, O’Hara’s Miss America remains a cherished cult album, cited by Nick Cave, Neko Case, Tanya Donelly, the Dirty Three, and countless others as a profound and influential masterwork. At the time of its 1988 release, UK music weekly Sounds wrote that O'Hara's voice appeared "to be clinging white-knuckled to the bare face of life." Recently, O’Hara’s improvised performances stack words and melody in real time to develop radically deconstructed versions of her material.
The exclusive event is accessible by RSVP for ISSUE Members with their Member Code. This event is part of ISSUE's annual year-end campaign which raises funds for upcoming commissions, ensuring critical access to funds, space, time, resources, and visibility for experimental artists. Year-end contributions are 100% tax-deductible.
For more information about access to the night’s events and participating in the year-end campaign, please contact Emma Roberts, Development Manager, at emma@issueprojectroom.org.
Undisciplinary artist Mary Margaret O'Hara is a graduate of The Ontario College of Art and Design who typecast herself with her 1988 album Miss America. All over the creative map, if there is such a map, she loves drawing, painting, her original calligraphy, free improv, hosting her brother's events, making people laugh and cry, acting in and composing for theater and film, doing wordless backup for singers and musicians, making noises on the fly, off the cuff, and out of the ballpark, and being with her brothers and sisters. You know who you are.
Marcus O'Hara, sculptor, artist, actor, storyteller, funnyman is most famous for being the owner and designer of the iconic art space and bar The Squeeze Club. He is also well known for his yearly Martian Awareness Ball held on St Patrick's Day. Marcus often performs balloons alongside Mary Margaret O’Hara. In a review from Le Guess Who Festival in Utrecht in November 2017, stated “and her brother who plays a solo on the balloon that somehow, in this context, is hugely powerful. Whimpering, expressive, funny, soaring and uncategorisable.”
