The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre and DPI pride themselves on recognizing and supporting various types of experimental artists. Generally, these artists include daring pieces that play with ideas of digital media and technology. Adam Matta came to the residency program to pursue an entirely new kind of experimental piece.

He calls it a multimedia and installation piece titled “Makeshift”. I call it awesome. The basis of the work, performed at HERE Arts Center in early January of 2007, was “bike drawing”. Adam would put paint on the tires of bike and perform tricks on a canvas, resulting in a piece of art to be left behind after the performance. As if that isn’t cool enough, he used his time at the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre to play with wireless video connections and transmissions in order to set up a live feed during his performance. He attached videos to the handlebars of his bike and aimed them at his hands, projecting interesting video clips to be combined with animation created beforehand.

During this performance, Adam also showed off his beatboxing skills, performing both the bike drawing and the beatboxing simultaneously, a feat that he practiced for many hours during his Residency and GSRT and DPI.

Adam will be participating in the Confluence Theatre Company’s (re)cycle plays as part of the community eco festival on September 15. It should be a cool event. It’s also your chance to see 10-12 old-style cycle plays based around environmentalism and also see Adam perform his bike drawing and beatboxing.

Visit Adam’s website for more information about him and his projects!

www.adammatta.com