EpiscoDisco

This month’s EpiscoDisco brings you a stained-glass video installation by Oakland-based artist Brian Caraway and the synthscapey rhythms of San Francisco’s Jonas Reinhardt. DJ BT Magnum digs up obscure funk-boogie beats.

THE ART

Architecture from the Gothic period marks the height of stained glass as an art form. The mystical aura and ephemeral beauty of sunlit stained glass found in cathedrals such as Grace has been modeled as a metaphor for divine illumination. For this exhibition Oakland-based artist and Mills MFA grad Brian Caraway has created digital patterns of lines and color that flicker and shift inspired by the slow natural light passing across panes of Grace Cathedral’s stained glass windows. Deciphering the complex and impermanent relationships between color, light and design in his video piece Shimmer and Shift, Caraway’s abstractions become a nocturnal counterpart to the cathedral’s daytime iridescence.

Until then, as a bonus round, watch Caraway’s time-lapsed video documenting the year he did not get a haircut and relates the resulting growth to a rotting bag of potatoes: One Good Minute Will Last Me a Whole Year.

THE MUSIC

EpiscoDisco gets slightly stanky with obscure boogie-funk gems from DJ BT Magnum, one of the founding members of Beat Electric. Hijacking your psychic state and hauling you to sonic fringes is Jonas Reinhardt, who has been manipulating analog synthesizers and vintage drum machines for over a decade with a stint at the Havard Electronic Music Center for music synthesis. The San Francisco act describes their sound as “a spirited conversation between man, machines, and the ecstatic truth of the chaotic unknown”. Creating music that is at times stark and spare and at others lush and all-encompassing, the effect is a warm, hauntingly familiar sound bounded by unpredictability.

PARADISE NOW

Theology, music and art all share the aspiration to transcend the borders that language cannot. Paradise Now is a nondenominational curatorial duo that is exploring this commonality by showcasing artists who engage the awe-inspiring space within Grace Cathedral through multi-media installations and performing arts. Paradise Now is Eve Ekman and Jean Cooney.

EPISCODISCO

Recently voted one of 7×7 Magazine’s 250 Things To Do In San Francisco Before You Die and anointed “unusual fun” by the SF Chronicle, EpiscoDisco is a monthly event where community congregates to enjoy contemporary art installations, live performance, drinks and DJ’ed music at Grace Cathedral. EpiscoDisco is hosted on one Saturday of each month by Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

GRACE CATHEDRAL

“Great buildings are outward expressions of the human spirit…which speak to the human urge to transcend the mundane and commune with the divine”. A San Francisco landmark, Grace Cathedral is also home to a spiritual community that has continuously enjoyed relationships with contemporary artists, most notably Ansel Adams and Keith Haring, and currently forges new connections with Bay Area Artists though the Reverend Bertie Pearson and Paradise Now. These alliances are enabled by the openness at Grace to “embrace innovation and open-minded conversation where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed.”

Paradise Now presents “Above and Below”

Saturday, February 20th || 7PM to 10PM || Grace Cathedral

February’s EpiscoDisco features a gravity-defying installation of a thousand flowers by Elizabeth Parks Kibbey, real and unreal video projection from David Yun, and a snarky noise-pop performance by Nodzzz, all under one gothically vaulted roof

THE ART

The Persian word pairi-daeza was used to descrribe the beautiful enclosed gardens built to uplift the human spirit. With its connotations of ideal beauty, delight and harmonious conviviality, the word paradise came to be equated with the heavens, a non-earthly place that awaits the human spirit in the afterlife. Artist, writer and naturalist Elizabeth Parks Kibbey reclaims paradise for the earthbound with her installation of a thousand suspended flowers.  A transient garden in the sky, Parks Kibbey’s fantastical creation encourages those below to comingle with the unconditional joys of the here and now.

San Francisco-based artist David Yun manipulates digital video with scratch film technique in ethereal vignettes that capture momentary pleasures of the natural world. Drawing from the aesthetic that experimental filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage and Carolee Schneemann applied to 16mm film, Yun’s video projections instantly stimulate memory, emotion and sensation, dreamily blurring the lines between reality and reproduction.

THE MUSIC

On the 20th, DJ Cimi will be laying down the beats that will leave you sweating between the pews. To follow, San Francisco-based noise-pop trio Nodzzz will have the nave quivering with their West Coast cadence and lo-fi style delivered by a brazen attitude and punky, give-it-to-me-straight lyrics. Nodzzz-men Sean Paul Presley, Anthony Atlas and Brian Girgus cite their influences as British New Wave singles from the 70’s and 80’s as well as the San Francisco Public Library.

PARADISE NOW

Theology, music and art all share the aspiration to transcend the borders that language cannot. Paradise Now is a nondenominational curatorial duo that is exploring this commonality by showcasing artists who engage the awe-inspiring space within Grace Cathedral through multi-media installations and performing arts. Paradise Now is Eve Ekman and Jean Cooney.

EPISCODISCO

Recently voted one of 7×7 Magazine’s 250 Things To Do In San Francisco Before You Die and anointed “unusual fun” by the SF Chronicle, EpiscoDisco is a monthly event where community congregates to enjoy contemporary art installations, live performance, drinks and DJ’ed music at Grace Cathedral. EpiscoDisco is hosted on one Saturday of each month by Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

GRACE CATHEDRAL

“Great buildings are outward expressions of the human spirit…which speak to the human urge to transcend the mundane and commune with the divine”. A San Francisco landmark, Grace Cathedral is also home to a spiritual community that has continuously enjoyed relationships with contemporary artists, most notably Ansel Adams and Keith Haring, and currently forges new connections with Bay Area Artists though the Reverend Bertie Pearson and Paradise Now. These alliances are enabled by the openness at Grace to “embrace innovation and open-minded conversation where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed.”

Paradise Now presents “Under Her Feet”

Saturday, January 23rd || 7PM to 10PM || Grace Cathedral

The Art

Many world religions exalt the role of the mother in scripture and iconography, from the central role of the Madonna in Christianity, to the adage taken from the Quran that “heaven lies under your mother’s feet”. Two artists address the uniqueness of motherhood from disparate perspectives, one personal and another investigative. Oakland artist Derek Weisberg uses the rituals of his work to reconcile his mother’s passing. Ceremonially adorned with candlelight, Weisberg’s twisted figurative sculptures embody states of emotional grief both intensely personal yet universally recognizable. New York photographer and installation artist Jessica Levey invokes all the loaded associations that accompany the simple imagery of mother and child with her straightforward video piece. The imagey marks Levey’s time working as a nanny, when she found herself participating in all the intimacies and exhaustive trials of being a mother without actually intending to be one.

The Music

To kick things off, musical whiz Nadia Shihab will be wielding both violin and keyboard to improvise playfully layered electro-folk music. Beats down the middle courtesy of DJ BusStation John and DJ Mrs. Blythe, and bringing up the rear will be the debut performance of Alters, the dark pop fusion of the talented Reverend Bertie Pearson and Little Melanie Anne Berlin. Alters formed when Bertie heard Melanie sing R. Kelly’s ‘Like a Snake’ in a Karaoke bar in Japantown in 2008. After discovering a mutual love of The Wake and Jermaine Dupri the two decided to form their band.

Paradise Now

Theology, music and art all share the aspiration to transcend the borders that language cannot. Paradise Now is a nondenominational curatorial duo that is exploring this commonality by showcasing artists who engage the awe-inspiring space within Grace Cathedral through multi-media installations and performing arts. Paradise Now is Eve Ekman and Jean Cooney.

EpiscoDisco

Recently voted one of 7×7 Magazine’s 250 Things To Do In San Francisco Before You Die and anointed “unusual fun” by the SF Chronicle, EpiscoDisco is a monthly event where community congregates to enjoy contemporary art installations, live performance, drinks and DJ’ed music at Grace Cathedral. EpiscoDisco is hosted on one Saturday of each month by Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

Grace Cathedral

“Great buildings are outward expressions of the human spirit…which speak to the human urge to transcend the mundane and commune with the divine”. A San Francisco landmark, Grace Cathedral is also home to a spiritual community that has continuously enjoyed relationships with contemporary artists, most notably Ansel Adams and Keith Haring, and currently forges new connections with Bay Area Artists though the Reverend Bertie Pearson and Paradise Now. These alliances are enabled by the openness at Grace to “embrace innovation and open-minded conversation where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed.”

Thank You to all who partook in December's EpiscoDisco!
To view the portraits taken that night by Troy Bayless visit

www.episcodisco.shutterfly.com

Saturday, December 19th, 2009 || 7PM to 10PM || Grace Cathedral

Our sublime and surreal event features on-site portraiture snapped by Oakland-based photographer Troy Bayless, video projection by artist Maya Hayuk and musical performance by Pale Hoarse, presented by the Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

Read about EpiscoDisco in the recent Guardian article, “Nice Apse”

“Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today”*

This month’s EpiscoDisco offers a moment in time. Light catching through a stained glass window, a fleeting swell of emotion illuminated in a glance, clouds take curious shapes and gently disband. If photography is the art that immortalizes, then this night will live eternal. Oakland-based photographer Troy Bayless will be taking portraits, manipulating the gothic intricacies of Grace Cathedral as his backdrop. New York artist Maya Hayuk projects intimate imagery of impossible skyscapes throughout the arched hull of the church. The haunting and tender acoustic harmonies of musical duo Pale Hoarse will tempoarily bend the airways, giving sonic proof that We Were Here.

A Moment to Give

The winter months prove to be especially challenging for those already enduring the hardships of homelessness, and the holiday season can serve as a yearly reminder to reach out and care for others in need. In this spirit we are accepting donations at this month’s EpiscoDisco that will assist the Episcopalian Community Services of San Francisco in their mission to “help homeless and very low-income people every day and every night obtain the housing, jobs, shelter, and essential services each person needs to prevent and end homelessness.”
The Sanctuary, Next Door and the Winter Interfaith Shelterare currently in dire need of winter clothing donations. You can help by bringing socks, gloves, hats, coats or blankets (or cold hard cash) to EpiscoDisco on Saturday to be donated to one of these three local shelters.

EpiscoDisco

Recently voted one of 7×7 Magazine’s 250 Things To Do In San Francisco Before You Die and anointed “unusual fun” by the SF Chronicle, EpiscoDisco is a monthly event where community congregates to enjoy contemporary art installations, live performance, drinks and DJ’ed music at Grace Cathedral. EpiscoDisco is hosted on one Saturday of each month by Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

Paradise Now
Theology, music and art all share the aspiration to transcend the borders that language cannot. Paradise Now is a nondenominational curatorial duo that is exploring this commonality by showcasing artists who engage the awe-inspiring space within Grace Cathedral through multi-media installations and performing arts. Paradise Now is Eve Ekman and Jean Cooney.

Grace Cathedral

“Great buildings are outward expressions of the human spirit…which speak to the human urge to transcend the mundane and commune with the divine”. A San Francisco landmark, Grace Cathedral is also home to a spiritual community that has continuously enjoyed relationships with contemporary artists, most notably Ansel Adams and Keith Haring, and currently forges new connections with Bay Area Artists though the Reverend Bertie Pearson and Paradise Now. These alliances are enabled by the openness at Grace to “embrace innovation and open-minded conversation where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed.”
*The quote above was from the prickly yet sentimental author and counterculture environmentalist Edward Abbey.

Saturday, November 21st, 2009 || 7PM to 10PM || Grace Cathedral

Paradise Now presents “The Contingent Universe”

Behold the experimentations of artist Kamau Amu Patton as he employs sound, performance and video to engage the expanses of Grace Cathedral, and bear witness to the sonic vision of synth and rhythm summoned by musical guest Bronze.

Kamau Amu Patton

Kamau Amu Patton is a San Francisco-based visual artist who fuses digital video, light and sound installations and performance to pursue social, political and spiritual investigations. “The Contingent Universe” will be an experimental exhibition in which Patton uses these mediums to tinker with our perceptions of the gothic space that constitutes this house of worship.

With a degree in Sociology from University of Pennsylvania, and his MFA from Stanford, Patton has exhibited his work in solo shows in Los Angeles at Machine Project, Queens Nails Annex in San Francisco and at Tilton Gallery in New York. He has worked on community-based projects with the San Francisco Institute, the Museum of Children’s Art, Southern Exposure and the Richmond Art Center, as well as public arts projects for the San Francisco Art Commission, the City of Walnut Creek and the City of San Jose. Patton has collaborated on projects at the MoMA in NY and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and is currently developing a performance project for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. 

Paradise Now

Theology, music and art all share the aspiration to transcend the borders that language cannot. Paradise Now is a nondenominational curatorial duo that is exploring this commonality by showcasing artists who engage the awe-inspiring space within Grace Cathedral through multi-media installations and performing arts. Paradise Now is Eve Ekman and Jean Cooney.

EpiscoDisco

Recently voted one of 7×7 Magazine’s 250 Things To Do In San Francisco Before You Die and anointed “unusual fun” by the SF Chronicle, EpiscoDisco is a monthly event where community congregates to enjoy contemporary art, live performance, drinks and DJ’s at Grace Cathedral. EpiscoDisco is hosted on one Saturday of each month by Reverend Bertie Pearson and curatorial duo Paradise Now.

Grace Cathedral

“Great buildings are outward expressions of the human spirit…which speak to the human urge to transcend the mundane and commune with the divine”. A San Francisco landmark, Grace Cathedral is also home to a spiritual community that has continuously enjoyed relationships with contemporary artists, most notably Ansel Adams and Keith Haring, and currently forges new connections with Bay Area Artists though the Reverend Bertie Pearson and Paradise Now. These alliances are enabled by the openness at Grace to “embrace innovation and open-minded conversation where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed.”