Performance installation of the first three movements of "Blued Trees" scheduled at ISCP Tuesday evening December 15, 2015

Blued Trees by Aviva Rahmani Program Notes

Photo by Jillian Steinhauer from boating tour of Newtown Creek with Dylan Gaultier and Aviva Rahmani

The Blued Trees Symphony overture, first and second movement of five movements premieres 6:30 PM at ISCP, 1040 Metropolitan Ave. Brooklyn, NY for Aqueous Earth December 15, 2015.

I am pleased and honored to present the first three movements of the Blued Trees symphony. Many thanks to the entire staff of ISCP and the NEA, who have hosted this residency period for me to focus on producing the second movement of the symphony. Particular thanks to studio assistant Su Jung Kim and technical support from Drew Lichtenstein.

Blued Trees is a 16-month long symphony at multiple sites internationally. The work includes a series of site specific installations, as copyrighted sculptures in collaboration with trees, at over twenty sites internationally. The goal of this work is to initiate an international discussion about the judicial meaning of public good and earth rights, and create the legal instruments for a resilient future,  including clean water, from the impetus of art. The second movement compares what has been done to Newtown Creek, to what is about to happen to the State of New York and the remainder of the earth, as fossil fuel infrastructure advances unimpeded.

Part I: overture film created with Denise Petrizzo from the June 21, 2015 launch.

Audio includes work from Maile Colbert with score created by Aviva Rahmani, and singing by Coloratura Debra Vanderlinde and Aviva Rahmani. The site of the launch was Peekskill New York, at the invitation of the Reynolds Hills Property Association, where expanded natural gas pipelines would pass within 105’ of the nuclear plant infrastructure for the Indian Point facility, 30 miles from New York City. The work at the site had copyright registration to protect the art and the habitat from destruction. September 30, 2015, a cease and desist notification was delivered to the Spectra Corporation. In defiance of that cease and desist notification to the Spectra Corporation, that site was destroyed late November 2015.

Part II: first movement, based on trees painted at twenty corridor sites opposing natural gas infrastructure in 1/3 mile measures of the symphony. Each site had been painted at the invitation of residents facing land condemnation under eminent domain law, in the name of public good. Film of painting at three sites in Oneida County, New York, by Heriberto Rodriguez.

Part III: second movement, comparing the history and status of the Newtown Creek superfund site and the extent of plans for natural infrastructure in New York State.

Live Performers:

Gusti Bogok, activist and soprano

Daniel McHenry, actor

Aviva Rahmani, artist and soprano

Al Smith, bass

Lynne Taylor, actor

Dean Temple, actor

Showing of the Second Movement of Blued Trees Opens Tonight

There will be a viewing of the second movement work-in-progress of the Blued Trees symphony. I have composed a statement for ISCP Open Studio event beginning tonight at 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn, and continuing tomorrow from 1:-8: PM:

     "Blued Trees," is a five part operatic symphonic installation that began June 21, 2015 with an overture in Peekskill, New York and will conclude with a coda during the American presidential Election in 2016. 

    The overture was accompanied by an international Greek Chorus at twenty additional sites. 

     Peekskill was chosen because it is the site of a proposed natural gas pipeline expansion within 105’ of a failing nuclear facility, 30 miles from New York City.

     The first movement is taking places in six states in America so far, as a series of 1/3 mile “measures,” of a score that is simultaneously spatial and acoustic. The score corresponds to a pattern that prevents the movement of heavy machinery through corridors for proposed natural gas pipelines. Each note of the score is indicated as a vertical sine wave with a non-toxic slurry of ultramarine blue and buttermilk to grow moss.

The site of each of the installations for the overture and first movement are in various stages of copyright filing, registration and notices of cease and desist against violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). The goal is to litigate this premise first in the United States Supreme Court, and then at the United Nations, as an Earth Rights issue.

The immediate goal in the Untied States is to contest the abuse of eminent domain law by fossil fuel corporations, with the sword of copyright law. Success will depend on engaging the mainstream in a conversation about what is public good, and the process of fundraising to support the litigation process at each site.

The second movement, developing at ISCP, compares the Newtown Creek superfund site to what will happen to the entire state of New York, should proposed natural gas infrastructure continue to proliferate. It will culminate with a performance of the first three movements December 15, 2015. The music of the symphony is being developed as both a matter of local ambient sound and as classical repertoire with bel canto and other conventional instrumentation.

The variations in the movements are based on an iterative score created for the overture. The painted trees are the soloists for this work, and due to the corruption of the legal process, should we fail, will also become martyrs to the cause of freedom. The process for all concerned, especially the trees, is exhausting.