South Cove Song (overlay)
John P. Hastings
June 16, 4pm & 6pm
South Cove, Battery Park City
FREE, Drop-In
South Cove Song (overlay) was a site-specific music performance, featuring a brass ensemble, centered on the past(s), present(s), and future(s) of Lower Manhattan. The human interaction with the natural landscape and the built environment was questioned, reframed, and reassembled through sonic interventions in South Cove Park.
Using the site of the artist Mary Miss’s park project (created with Stanton Eckstut and Susan Child in 1987), the performance was partly an homage to this visionary artist’s work. It was also a musical and textual accretion of materials, from 17th century Dutch melodies, Romantic-era seafaring novels, to the contemporary resiliency plans for Lower Manhattan designed to mitigate against unstoppable natural forces. Humans had strung and knotted lines of increasing complexity in our world. What did the future hold?
Presented in partnership with partnership with Battery Park City Authority.
Performance Length: 45 minutes
John P. Hastings is an artist and musician based in New York City. He has had performances in rock clubs, art galleries, museums, public parks, and traffic islands throughout the United States and Europe. Recently completed work includes a multimedia performance based on John McPhee’s book, Annals of the Former World; and Forest Song, an outdoor music event centered on human and forest relationships. More information can be found on his website johnphastings.org.