Music & Videos From the Dump at Herbst Theatre

The first performance of "Junkestra" at the SF dump

Last Friday, the 16th of November, I attended a presentation at Herbst Theatre made by the Norcal Waste Systems. Surprising, no? A dump putting together a lovely little evening in the artistic district of San Francisco...the evening was one of amazingly wonderful paradoxes and interesting perspectives, artworks, and music.

Unknown to many people, the San Francisco dump has an artists in residence program that supports artists who wish to come to the dump and create art using whatever material they may find there. Fridays performance was an evening to showcase some of this art that has been created through the program. The theme of the evening: recycle, reuse, and do not waste!

The first half of the night, movies by different visual artists were shown. The films were relatively short and very interesting, at times funny, sometimes more there to show us something, to convey a fact, than anything else. Works were shown by Reddy Lieb, Banker White, Robin Lasser, Don Ross, Nomi Talisman, and Philip Bonner. All of these artists went through the artists in residence program at the dump, and all their films conveyed some aspect about the waste site. Each one touched on something different, which worked out nicely and effectively.

After intermission, the second half was devoted to a very interesting piece of music. Composer Nathaniel Stookey (funny story: his mother, Martha, taught me theater for two years of high school) decided to apply to be an artist in residence using music. He went to the dump, found a bunch of items, and contrsucted musical instruments. He then composed a 15 minute piece (in three movements) on these instruments made out of trash that he called "Junkestra". It was first performed at the SF Dump in May this year, and this one at Herbst Theatre Friday night was only the second performance. It is a piece performed by members of the San Francisco Youth Orchestra and conducted by Benjamin Schwartz.

The piece is, and I do not take this word lightly, brilliant. It sounds amazing and is fun to listen to and, most importantly, to observe. I was in awe at how many sounds he made with what he had. I was shocked when Nat Stookey told the audience that he had not cut or modified any piece of trash he picked up. He made these sounds with how he found the items originally.

The piece was an enormous success and the audience demanded it be played again, to which one witty audience member yelled "Recycle!"
An amazing piece that everyone should hear.

Which is lucky! You can listen to the piece at the main page for Nat Stookey's residence:
http://www.sfrecycling.com/AIR/stookey.htm

Enjoy!

SF Dump site: https://www.norcalwaste.com/
Artist in Residence program: http://www.sfrecycling.com/AIR/index.htm
Photos of the Junkestra: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artatthedump/sets/72157600047671773/