2011: Dan Ake & Sung Kim

original percussion; The Lobro | homemade stringed instruments such as; Gigantar and Sympathetic Canon 6

Dan Ake has been a sculptor/sound artist since the seventies. He received his BA from SF State in 1975 where he studied with Jock Reynolds and his MFA from SFAI in 1978 in Sculpture under Robert Hudson and Howard Fried. He’s exhibited extensively and was part of the seminal exhibition “Artists Performers/Performance Artists” at the University Art Museum in Berkeley in 1975. Other exhibits include “Moose Sighs” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, “Sojourn in the Cirque” in Lander Wyoming, “Oblique Angles and Soft Steps” at MoMing Art Center in Chicago and “Make Soft Weight Quiet” at The Living Art Museum in Reykjavik Iceland. He is currently performing with the avant-guard band Eddie the Rat. His current sound work is published by Comfort Stand Records and has just released a new CD on Edgetone Records with Eddie the Rat performing “Once Around the Butterfly Bush”. This piece debuted at New Langton Arts in October 05’. He served on the SFAI Artists Committee for three years and on the Board of Directors at New Langton Arts for five years, four as the board President. He’s also served on the Board of Directors of San Francisco Little League for the last 10 years in the capacity of Umpire in Chief. He lives and works in San Francisco.

Sung Kim is an architectural woodworker and experimental musical instrument builder living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His works are hybrids based loosely on historically obsolete and indigenous musical instruments. For this exhibit I will be presenting an instrument that combines an acoustic vessel and analog circuitry to create an infinite, controllable tone. "[His instruments] include a bowed one made from wood with an animal-hide (deer, if I heard correctly) body with 24 strings, a plucked one that looked like a bass sitar merged with Wolverine's adamantium spine (16 strings), and a wooden box with oscillators that emitted a mix of pinging bleeps and droning, resonating strings. There was also an incredibly simple guitar, like bass banjo, with just three strings, its oversize tuning pegs like buckteeth.

Artist (photo by Photographer)