Joni: Surge: Contour Theater

Thu 27 Jun, 2024, 8pm

Thursday, June 27th at 8pm, ISSUE is pleased to present the next stage of Surge and the second commission from 2024 Artist-In-Residence Joni. Over the course of her residency, the artist will present work-in-progress showings and new compositions of incredibly revealing, intimate and visceral sound work. Joni’s Contour Theater is a ‘theatrical’ rendition of the ongoing Surge project that delves into the dramatics of music through reshaping and contouring the body of sound, trying to find new limits. Following her first performance at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl, Contour Theater relocates to the historic, Spanish-style theater at Brooklyn Music School

The material is rearranged to highlight its theatrical nature: the tragic, operatic, and ceremonious, within a body-organ-surgeon produced harmony. An endless cycle of desire. Electronic sound, piano, clay and movement align for an hour as a deep dive into three stages of a transitional circle: dismemberment, reconnection, and control. By way of live sampling, Joni explores loops as sound and memory; creating new arrangements for the body to exist within. Mirroring total dismemberment with live reassembly, Surge reworks sounds recorded in a state of complete unconsciousness and vulnerability.

This performance is dedicated to the memory of my great friend, mentor, lover and collaborator Hattie Wiener, an inspiration to many. You really don't know freedom like this till you feel it tingle in the back of your throat. We were beyond our physical circumstances in this life and we will be beyond it in any other. I love you dearly, and I am eternally grateful to call you my sister. 

Joni and Hattie's last performance - highlight video (office magazine)

Joni is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Joni’s works weave sound, image and word with performances that are concerned with the physicality of desire and control, the monumental, and the multitude of histories within the body. Through body movement and misplacement of sound, Joni’s practice seeks to decode inheritance systems and the uncontrollable reflexes within them. Traveling between Darbuka drums and glitch, magic and endurance, Joni presents work that scratches wounds in hopes for water rather than blood. Joni has a BFA from the School of Visual Arts (NY), and works within art and nightlife spaces. Joni is the Founder of Intima, a trans led Brooklyn based collective focusing on fusing art and performance into nightlife spaces and raves. Created to carve a space for the trans queer community that brings, Intima brought together thousands of queer trans people over the past year, with Joni organizing and curating all parties and events. Joni is currently on MoMa PS1’s Warm Up 2023 host committee and a contributor to the festival's curation. Joni has presented solo works as a performer and electronic musician at spaces such as Nowadays, Elsewhere, H0l0, Market Hotel, The Palace, Otion Front Studio, Chaos Computer, HERE Arts, 3 Dollar bill, Times Square Arts. She completed a residency at Otion Front Studio in March 2023. Joni is currently the nightlife manager of Brooklyn venue Market Hotel.

Respect your RSVP

ISSUE encourages a culture of respect around free arts programming–by honoring your RSVP, you recognize ISSUE’s ongoing efforts to cultivate new work by emerging artists. If you can no longer attend a free event, please contact sylver@issueprojectroom.org to let us know. Thank you for respecting the reservation.

Founded in 2003, ISSUE Project Room is a pioneering nonprofit performance center, presenting projects by interdisciplinary artists that expand the boundaries of artistic practice and stimulate critical dialogue in the broader community. ISSUE serves as a leading cultural incubator, facilitating the commission and premiere of innovative new works.

Brooklyn Music School is a community school for the performing arts, founded in 1909 as the Brooklyn Music School Settlement. The school was founded by immigrants for whom music performance and appreciation was an essential part of life, and who wished to spread music and performance to a broader audience of new Americans. Today, Brooklyn is a magnet for people from around the world, both musicians seeking new audiences and families seeking a better life. Our organization continues to stay true to our heritage of building communities through the joy and appreciation of music. 

ISSUE Project Room and Brooklyn Music School are partnering throughout 2024, having committed to sharing resources in support of the creation, presentation of, and engagement with experimental performance practices. 

There are three steps at the main theater entrance of Brooklyn Music School, with a (non-ADA compliant) ramp at the loading area which can be used when needed.

ISSUE Project Room's Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, TD Charitable Foundation, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Additional support for ISSUE Project Room's 2024 season is provided by Metabolic Studio.