Elevator to Mezzanine
Artist Talk by Steven Warwick and DeForrest Brown, Jr.
Monday, March 5th 5pm Humanities Center Lounge
Elevator to Mezzanine is a cataloguing space formed by Steven Warwick & DeForrest Brown, Jr. in 2017. Working across several media platforms, their respective practices combine to propose a War on Style. In 2017 they produced a lookbook/ style journal with texts and essays exploring modern intimacy (or rather the lack thereof) both on and offline, which culminated in a performance installation at Issue Project Room and an exhibition at Cleopatras project space in New York. Warwick and Brown will discuss their respective approaches to narrative across media and how they merge in their collaborative project.
Steven Warwick is an artist, musician and writer based in Berlin. Recent works include the Mezzanine musical performance series and the audio-visual performance lecture “Fear Indexing the X- Files” with writer Nora Khan, recently published by Primary Information. His writing has appeared in Artforum, Texte Zur Kunst and Urbanomic. Musically, he produces and performs a hybrid live/DJ set under his own name, releasing music on the acclaimed club/ experimental label PAN with performing at venues including Berghain, V&A Museum London, Cafe Oto, Trouw Amsterdam, Bergen Konsthall, Stony Island Arts Bank Chicago, Issue Project Room NYC, Mutek and Unsound Festival. He has exhibited visual work at SMK Copenhagen, the Modern Institute Glasgow, ICA London, Balice Hertling NYC, Exile Galerie and New Theater Berlin
DeForrest Brown, Jr. is a New York-based music writer, media theorist and curator. He has previously worked with publications such as Triple Canopy, Tiny Mix Tapes, NPR Music, FACT, Rhizome, and Avant.org. In 2017 he was the inaugural Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow at ISSUE Project Room. Recent collaborators include producer Kepla, visual artist Chris Boyd, publishing collective the Actual School, and the online collective Quantum Natives.
Warwick and Brown are currently writing a screenplay for an existential western as Greek tragedy set in contemporary America titled Performing America (Iconic America).