£5 OTD Entry / BYOB / Facebook event for RSVPs
Over 100 feet in length, LONG/GONE is a single intricately-cut piece of paper created by artist Erik Ruin, who has been lauded by the New York Times for his “spell-binding cut-paper animations.” The piece flows freely from image to image, while narratives and scenarios (often drawn from classic works of literature from Homer to Dante) emerge, collapse, and spill over and into each other. Philly Voice calls it “stark, intricate and wondrous – Ruin’s paper-cut art combines the enthralling fantasy of a storybook with the prismatic, fragmented beauty of a stained-glass window.”
In performance, Ruin scrolls the paper-cut continually across the surface of an overhead projector, creating an epic and immersive shadow-show. For this performance, he will be joined by a slew of carefully selected musicians from Manchester improvised and creative music scene He has previously worked with, the Ominous Cloud Ensemble which featured an eclectic cast of musicians who collaborate with everyone from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Chris Forsyth, the Body, and Bardo Pond – providing an enthralling live soundtrack, shifting modes seamlessly from pastoral melodies to hellish noise.
Erik Ruin is a Michigan-raised, Philadelphia-based printmaker, shadow puppeteer, paper-cut artist, etc. His work oscillates between the poles of apocalyptic anxieties and utopian yearnings, with an emphasis on empathy, transcendence and obsessive detail. He frequently works collaboratively with musicians, theater performers, other artists, and activist campaigns. He is a founding member of the international Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, and co-author of the book Paths Toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism (w/ Cindy Milstein, PM Press, 2012). Learn more about his work at www.erikruin.com
A full (unlisted) video of LONG/GONE’s Philadelphia debut:
