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“Spirit of the Magpie: Hidden Keys to the Scavenger’s Scrapbook” An audiovisual trance journey with stopmotion animation and improvised sound

November 18 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

| $12

Date: Wednesday, November 18th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $12 ( Ticket Here )
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn NY.

The Morbid Anatomy Museum is pleased to present experimental animator and musician Alice Cohen in an evening of live music and projections invoking the magpie as totem spirit animal of collage artists, visual and sonic improvisors, and all who collect and repurpose the unwanted castoffs of others. Spirit of the Magpie will feature the animation of Alice Cohen with additional guest musicians and performers.

Known to be scavengers with a love for collecting shiny objects, magpies will often steal rings and other glittering jewelry that have been left on windowsills. They have much lore connected to them, and are sometimes regarded as bearers of ill omen, as well as being associated with the devil. There are rituals, poems and salutations to the magpie, to ward off their devilish influence. They are also the only bird speciesand one of only a few animal species that can recognize their own reflection in a mirror.

When we search sidewalks or junk shops for hidden treasures, we are embodying the magical soul of the magpie. This attraction to forgotten ephemera. . . antiquated inks on rotting papers. . . old crackling records and musty cassettes. . . falls into the realm of the magpie as spirit guide, as we rescue lost remnants from a world that perpetually erases the past, while becoming increasingly stark and sanitised. The mirrored reflection of the magpie becomes a liminal space for shapeshifting identities through the transformational use of found and rescued objects, images and sounds.

Alice Cohen is an animator and musician living in Brooklyn, NY. She has composed and released recordings over many years in a wide variety of contexts including New Wave band The Vels, Die Monster Die in the 90s, and more experimental solo work in recent years, through the Olde English Spelling Bee record label. Her visual work is informed by her musical history as well as an ongoing interest in mystical and metaphysical worlds. Drawn to the colors and printing techniques of bygone eras, Cohen has incorporated these elements into her current animation work, recycling found imagery from old books and magazines to create surreal dreamscapes. In addition to dozens of music videos created for bands, her animation work has been shown in screenings, galleries and museums, including Microscope Gallery, The New Museum, Filmmaker’s Coop, Anthology Film Archives, LA Film Forum, and the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland.

Details

Date:
November 18
Time:
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Cost:
$12
Event Category:

Venue

Morbid Anatomy Museum
424A 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215 United States
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Website:
http://morbidanatomymuseum.org