Art never sleeps. It evolves and breeds taking on many different
shapes and forms at different intervals. Art... Is all in the eyes of the beholder
and is nothing more than what you make, or take, out of it. The relationship
between art and music is ever present in our society. It should come as no surprise
that promoter/musician Sam Hillmer and wife/sculptor Laura wanted to combine
the two into something that pushes the boundaries of todays jaded society. For
twenty-two days the pair and their army will take over Brooklyn’s beloved
independent music venue Death By Audio and turn it into a fun house of art,
sculptures and visual effects mixed with some of the best musical artists around.
The goal is to take you out of your precious comfort zone and get you to appreciate
music and art together, but from a totally different perspective.
Beginning on September 10th, Death By Audio will be at the
mercy of art and what goes in may never be the same once it comes out. If the
sheer chaos of it all doesn’t grab your attention the admission price
is a mere $7..00 beginning at eight and running until late every single night
until October 2nd. Each night has anywhere from four to eight bands on the bill
and there are over a hundred artists booked to play this massive art collective
with a great deal of those artists belonging to our very own local scene. The
kickoff night is this Thursday featuring Skeletons, Dan Friel and Pterodactyl.
Other highlights of the Maze event will be the Pygmy Shrews playing on the 12th,
Desolation Wilderness and City Center on the 14th, Anamanaguchi and Grooms on
the 17th, Ty Segal on the 18th, Shooting Spires with Graffiti Monsters on the
23rd, Screaming Females on the 26th, Telecult Powers and Bassoon on the 28th,
and Nymph on the 30th. There are so many more acts performing that I couldn’t
possibly list them all. For the full line up visit myspace.com/youareheremaze.
I recently caught up to one of the founders for this event, Sam Hiller, and
got to drill him a bit about what this Maze shenanigans is all about...
Sam, what the Maze is all about?
The maze is about gutting an experience that you're really
used to having and filling it with totally new guts that don't totally work
with the rest of the experience. Even though the maze seeks to obstruct habitual
show going behavior, it's about the scene, I mean, we have the scene's back.
We love the scene and we want everyone to feel like we can have a festival as
a community without all kinds of sponsorships and tote bags and badges and stuff.
That shit is such a drag.
How does the relationship between music and art come
together in the Maze?
Saying that the music and art come together doesn't really
get at what’s up with this thing. Creating such an extreme environment,
and noticing how it changes what happens in your experience trying to take the
music in, highlights the way in which the music and the environment you are
used to taking music on in aren't separate in the first place.
Who are the artists that are responsible for the design/creation
of the Maze?
Laura Paris, the sculptor, my wife, thought of the maze. It
was my idea to put a performance festival in it. We needed to think of some
way to get people into it and I was pretty experienced at organizing events
so I figured I'd try to put a festival sort of thing together inside this maze
construction. But the maze itself was her idea, her design, and she fills it
with all these really rad sculptures.
What kind of process is going to take place in order
for the Maze to come to life?
We are painting the entire venue inside, having about 150 doors
delivered, painting all of them strategically to make the color scheme work
out right, messing around with a lot of lighting stuff, installing a sound piece,
filling the floor with tire mulch, stenciling the entire maze with pink spray
paint, writing 108 quotes on the walls, installing about 150 sculptures (not
totally sure about that number), and of course, building the maze itself! Death
By Audio will be shut down for a total of twelve days in order to get the maze
installed.
What point are you trying to get across to the audience?
We are hoping to join them.
This is not the first time the Maze has been done.
What do you hope to do differently this time around?
Last time the maze took place in Times Square and it was very
much about importing this stuff from brooklyn and focusing that energy through
the act of constantly being in the face of people who weren't interested in
that. This maze is the opposite. It's like doing all these relatively believable
bills at this place where you would expect to find this stuff, but you go inside
and the whole thing is imploded.
What other kinds of performances can we expect to
find at the Maze?
There is a bunch of dance, theater, video stuff, some conceptual
art stuff, some comedy, possibly food and drink being served and a meditation
group will come and sit in the maze on September 12th.
