Banner image: Under the Ivy Entrance to a Secret Garden by Sophia Lee. Image courtesy of the artist.
Featuring Art Installations by Susan Brady, Hopi Breton, Josie Iselin, Sophia Lee and Bay Farm Elementary School (Ginny Parsons with Michele Kuttner’s 2nd Grade Class)
Music by: Andre Thierry and Zydeco Magic, China’s Spirit Music Ensemble, Hālau Makana and Ballet Folklorico Flor de Cafe
Activities: Thingamakids by Thingamajigs
On Friday, April 12th from 6-9pm, Rhythmix Cultural Works brings art, dance and music to Bay Farm’s Harbor Bay Landing in Alameda. In celebration of Earth Day, Love Our Island Art Walk – Radical Beauty, Part 7 features artists utilizing recycled materials and environmental themes accompanied by family-friendly performances with music and dance from around the globe.
Love Our Island Art Walk is an art-centric creative placemaking project that utilizes public art, storefront art installations and live musical performances to activate Alameda’s historic downtown districts supported in part by the California Arts Council, City of Alameda Public Art Commission, the Downtown Alameda Business Association and Rhythmix sponsors.
Installation Artists
Susan Brady has been working in mixed media for over two decades. She is always on the lookout for materials on the street, in dumpsters, at estate sales and on walks in the woods. Her work has evolved from colorful collage and paint to monotypes, wood constructions, fabric collages and the abstract horse assemblages featured at Rhythmix’ Love Our Island Art Walk.
Croquette, Mixed, wood, metal, rope, fabric, cork, tools, 53”h x 19”w x 36”l by Susan Brady. Image courtesy of the artist.
Hopi Breton’s current work focuses on the land as physical and spiritual sustenance. She uses redwood, specifically to describe a local resource that has both economic and spiritual relevance. In Redwood Gold, the hollowed out forms with gold interiors allude to the loss of redwoods as a natural resource as well as a loss of connection to the land. At the same time, the color gold references the potential of redwoods to inspire reverence, and alludes to a kind of revaluation of the naturalness of natural resources.
Redwood Gold by Hopi Breton. Image courtesy of the artist.
Josie Iselin is a fine art photographer, writer and book designer focusing on the seaweed stories of our Pacific Coast. Her newest book is titled, The Curious World of Seaweed. Alongside her fine-art prints, she designs her portraits of kelp and seaweed into oversize fabric panels as well as luxury scarves. Josie holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University.
Palmaria Multi, 2016, 36” x36” dye sublimation printed poly-chiffon scarf by Josie Iselin. Image courtesy of the artist.
Sophia Lee grew up straddling the two cultures of Taiwan and America. After college, she worked as a graphic designer in NYC until 911. This tragic event prompted her to travel the world, leading her back to painting. She has since participated in exhibits from Taipei and Pasadena to Portland, NYC and now SF. Much of her recent work utilizes reclaimed material from everyday life and reveals the inner beauty of rhythm and movement that is observed from her surroundings.
Pacific Gyre, 2017, acrylic & polyethylene on canvas 36” x 48” by Sophia Lee. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ginny Parsons and Michele Kuttner’s 2nd grade class at Bay Farm School will be creating reuse origami birds. The kids’ folded sculpture is created out of old newspaper, workbooks and calendars and hung with old Slinkee wire and reused vegetable skewers.
Reuse Origami Birds by Ginny Parsons. Image courtesy of the artist.
Live Performance
Grammy-nominated accordionist Andre Thierry has become an international icon of Accordion Soul. Rooted in his French-Creole heritage, Thierry’s music celebrates his background while integrating funk and R&B elements.
Playing with a force few can match, the award winning musician and his band effortlessly deliver electrifying sounds and fun dance beats capturing the attention of music lovers all over the world.
Founded in 2003 by guzheng (Chinese zither) soloist Winnie Wong.
CSME’s mission is to share culture and tradition with students and audiences through guzheng, providing a musical outlet for all generations through classical, folk and contemporary masterpieces of China as well as other parts the world.
Hālau Makana mission is to to preserve the cultures of Hawaii, Tahiti, and New Zealand through dance, art and music, and to share these art forms with anyone who has a desire to learn.
Ballet Folklorico Flor de Cafe is a multigenerational group of dancers dedicated to preserving and sharing the traditional folklore & dance of El Salvador, strengthening their cultural identity sharing positive and beautiful aspect of Salvadoran culture.
Activities
Bringing children, artists, teachers and science together through sound experiments, Thingamakids presents hands-on instrument building, music appreciation and the study of sound produced through made and found objects. Thingamajigs is a non-profit organization that investigates sounds in everyday material and found objects, through experiments conducted in school workshops, artist studios and art projects.