"Before dance, there is movement; before painting, gesture and light; before the poem, the tracing of signs and forms: world-gestures, world-patterns" a description of Loie Fuller's hauntingly mysterious art of movement, but one that could just as easily be said of the music and art of Rachel Mason. Much like Fuller's poetry of light, movement and cloth symbolizing a hidden universe of forms and gestures, Mason creates worlds within worlds, in music, art, film, forms hiding other forms, depths without end or limitation. To encounter her work is to find oneself on a journey, one that's destination is not known beforehand but that's arrival is always well worth the travel. Her work is conceptual, performative, always on the move and never where you would expect it to be. Like Laurie Anderson, Mason is a conductor fully in command of her score. In an age where grand musical narratives, grand narratives in general, seem to be declining, Mason shows not only what can be done when you create with the largest canvas available, but what the painting of, not a state of movement, but movement itself, looks like. AHC: You create fantastic and intricate rock operas to more subdued folk music, what is your approach to making an album from concept to final form, and what inspires your songwriting and music? Rachel: When I'm writing songs specifically tied to a narrative like The Lives of Hamilton Fish, I do a lot of research and then allow myself a kind of freedom to just let the songs hit me, when they will. It’s impossible to really know when you will get your best lyrics and melodies. Sometimes songs come in my dreams, or while I’m walking or driving. But I do love having an over-arching concept that contains the body of songs, because often with the song-series I learn what I need to create with my visual art that pulls everything together. The two are very much interwoven for me. AHC: Your art work is very political and poignantly so, from "The Ambassadors" to "The Candidate" which features disembodied hands at a podium absent a whole figure, profoundly mirroring just how disembodied our political culture is, to the provocative "kissing President Bush". Could you talk about your approach and philosophy surrounding these works and to your art practice as a whole? Rachel: ”The Ambassadors” was a project which involved both sculpture and songs. I sculpted figurines as a kind of fictionalized “collectors” set of the busts of leaders of the countries that were fighting during my lifetime. I included myself at the age that I was for each conflict. While sculpting these figures I created two albums of songs, and these were called, “Songs of the Ambassadors.” It’s still one of my favorite projects because it has so many far reaching tentacles. One of the songs, “My Chechen Wolves” ended up having a lot of momentum on YouTube and the song itself became a kind of anthem. Another song, “Unbind it” were the actual words of Saddam Hussein that I set to music. His own words were so musical. I performed these songs mostly in the art world whenever the Ambassadors were shown, or when I was doing related exhibitions. One of my favorite of these was a very large scale production at the Park Avenue Armory. I basically took over the whole Armory with an army of dancers - and did the whole thing very much guerrilla style- and with no budget. I morphed from Saddam Hussein, to Dzhokar Dudayev and then to an oracle. “The Candidate” was a project which came from an assignment to draw John Edwards back in 2009 when he was a presidential candidate for Playboy Magazine, by the writer Will Blythe. I got an email out of the blue asking if I would illustrate his article, and it was an amazing experience to go on the campaign trail sketching all of the candidates (including Clinton and Obama, who both signed my drawings). I ended up with hundreds of drawings and did an exhibition with a series of podiums which referenced, using my own hands, the candidates’ own gestures that they repeatedly used while giving stump speeches. “Kissing President Bush” was a sculpture I made while a student at Yale, and it was my response to the President and the entire government which I felt was so deeply corrupt and which I could not find any way to realistically protest during that time. AHC: Could you talk about the creative process and inspiration behind your very unique approach to music videos, which are beautiful and haunting short art films that bring to mind, in their own unique way, artists like Jan Švankmajer and Jiří Barta? Rachel: These artists are two of the best! I love music videos because they allow you to enter an alternate universe. I like to invent these worlds myself and also collaborate with others who have a like-minded interest in fantasy and exaggeration. Matthew Spiegelman made my most recently released video, Tigers in the Dark, and another video from the new album is being created by Eric Leiser, who is an amazing stop-motion animator. AHC: Could you talk some about your incredible film project 'The Lives of Hamilton Fish'? Rachel: The Lives of Hamilton Fish is a live-performed musical film, based on a true coincidence. Two men, both named Hamilton Fish, were pronounced dead on the front page of The Peekskill Evening Star Newspaper on January 16, 1936. One man was a serial killer and the other was a famous politician. The film's story is told through songs and I play the part of the editor of the newspaper. It has been shown all over the world, as a standalone film and as a live concert. I’m really grateful that you call it, “incredible” because for the first year when I sent it out to festivals, it got nothing but rejections, along with the caveat that it was “beautiful” but wasn’t a “real film” because it has no dialogue, and in many ways, it has the feel of a feature length music video. I was able to really find the right champions for the film in the art world, and in some ways, the film is just building its momentum. In many ways I circumnavigated the existing models for its distribution. It was shown primarily in art museums and even historical societies, even though it is now fully available to everyone online. Which is something I’m really happy about -- I make a very small amount of money every time anyone watches or purchases the film online. You can find the film here. http://www.livesofhamiltonfish.com/ AHC: Do you have any words of advice for young musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are trying to find their voice and their way in this world? Rachel: Don't compare yourself to anyone! Every artist (and every human) has their own unique path in life, and if things aren’t going the way you expect or want, just try to shift and make changes so you can do what works for you - to sustain yourself artistically and practically. A friend recently sent me this amazing article by one of my favorite artists, Carol Bove, and she offers such good advice for artists. http://www.artspace.com/magazine/news_events/book_report/carol-bove-akademie-x-52712 AHC: Do you have any new projects in motion you'd like to tell people about? Rachel: In November I’ll be releasing an album called, “das Ram” on Cleopatra Records in collaboration with a brand new artist-run cassette label called Practical Records. This album is really exciting to me because all of the songs have their own distinct stories and characters and I’m releasing videos which expand on these different narratives. I’m releasing a track with TheUse, whose lyrics are those of a poet who tragically died last year by suicide after working a brutal job at FoxComm in China. I found his poetry after news outlets began reporting about his death and the effort to save his words, by his friends. The song is going to be featured in a documentary film called “Who Pays the Price” which is all about the ongoing issues at electronics factories in China. One really exciting new video is Tigers in the Dark, which was made by Matthew Spiegelman, a close friend and brilliant artist and photographer. The dance in the video was choreographed by one of my favorite young dancer/ choreographers, Haylee Nichele, a Canadian who is currently living in Los Angeles. She is also featured along with Chelsea Zeffiro, another new dancer I recently began working with since moving to LA. I’m excited about working with so many amazing women. That’s been a welcome addition to all of my creative endeavors. Recently, a band that has begun forming between myself, Linda Kiss and Sophia Cleary, two women I adore. We’ll be playing at my album release shows at Human Resources and the Bootleg Theater. I am calling the band the Starseeds because the last body of sculptures I made was a series of women who are my heroes in art and music and I called them Starseeds. Sophia is an incredible and funny artist and her band is called Penis and they are championed by one of my favorite Riot Grrl heroes, Kathleen Hanna. Linda is a costume designer in addition to being a bassist, and over the summer many of the costumes that I wore were made in collaboration with her. I’m also now in the process of developing a new performance project at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. I’ll be showcasing work as part of their ongoing In-Real-Life performance series through December. For more information visit www.rachelannmason.com/ To purchase music directly from the artist visit rachelmason.bandcamp.com/
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