Anna RG: AIR CHANGE PER HOUR

Thursday, April 24th at 8pm, at the 22 Boerum Pl. theater, ISSUE is proud to present AIR CHANGE PER HOUR, the first commission from 2025 Artist-In-Residence Anna RG that interrogates relationships between sound, space, and accessibility in the context of airborne safety. Rooted in the ongoing realities of the pandemic, this work challenges expectations of silence in performance spaces by embracing the presence of air purifiers—not just as functional access objects, but as sonic, conceptual and political agents within the room.

they said purifiers were loud, meant audible sound. held silence over safety, one sense above another. but here in the corner the purifier is humming furniture music in Bb. it is holding duets between the loud of the ache in my head and the song through the fog. it is setting a room, shared resonant lung, and in we move the air we borrow, and here it filters what our bodies cannot. accompanist to a row of stories; like held their breath and wait for help, like letters from a fever. lean in, a rumble, lean in, what kind of future breeze, out of the corner of your eye? 

RG, who lives with long covid, creates AIR CHANGE PER HOUR with support from access dramaturg Alison Kopit, composer Alexa Dexa, and engineer Daniel Neumann, with sonic descriptions by Charles Eppley. The event features guest performers Dave Ruder and Slic, and writing by Jenna Bitar. They will be joined by a group of disabled/chronically ill artists performing “Scores for Sick Music,” who may or may not be present. The bed ensemble includes: Luca Stancato, Iele Paloumpis, Datu, Dan Fishback, Karisa Senavitis, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, Francesse Dolbrice, Gelsey Bell, Dave Ruder, Alexa Dexa, Bailey, Slic, Lily, Marguerite, Elly Belle, Judith Hamman, and Marissa Oliver. 

The artist would like to thank: Molly Joyce, Jay Afrisando, and Andy Slater for guidance. Thank you to the members and borrowers of AIRNYC and who facilitate this community air purifier library that allowed this performance to be possible.