This work is part of my collaboration with artist Ryan Bulis:

The intervention-based works of Brian Black and Ryan Bulis have helped the duo develop the persona known as Brian and Ryan. Their Sound Collection Helmets are a literal means to collect the sounds of a city. As this work advances, it has evolved into finding stories that could represent a current place, its history, and future aspirations. 
By recording the person from  from two different directions and then combining the two audio tracks, it creates a particular feedback quality in which different ambient noise is picked up in the background.
To date, they have brought this work to several cities and events across the United States including San Diego, San Pedro, Lincoln, Orlando, Art in Odd Places: Noise, Global Frequencies, The Wrong Festival and Soundpedro. 

Sound Collection Helmets

Doodad 2020 will be featured at Other Places art fair September 19th and 20th. 

Doodad 2020

Performance that took place during my Artist in Residence at Art Produce. I snap-attached 30 plastic horses to a Marlboro denim-jean jacket.

Hondo Hold Your Horses: 30 Celestial Centaurs

Drawing of banana torso centaur in white socks.

Hondo Hold your Horses: Centaur

Runner Series

Series of drawings with long haired figures in white collared shirts.

White Collar Hair Piece Series

A series of drawings that use the banana to represent a smile.

Phloem Smile Series

"100 shirt Shots" is part of a series of performances called the Doodads.
The shooter takes 100 shots with a basketball using me as the basket and backboard. The net has special snaps to keep it directly attached to the shirt.

Doodad: 100 Shirt Shots

The timing of my residency (May 4-June 13, 2020) was during the Covid-19 shutdown in California, and many of my original interactive components had to be adjusted. One of the main changes had to do with audience interaction and the recording of sound. 

During my five week residency at Art Produce, I recorded around 40 community members and local artists responses to a series of prompts. The interview station was set up at the front of the gallery so I could be inside and the person being interviewed could be outside. This adjustment was in direct response to limiting contact and social distancing. And while it was not part of my original plan, it ended up being one of my favorite components. Another example of an adjustment occurred during a Saturday that I had interviews scheduled. The Black Lives Matter protest was making its way to the street just outside the gallery. This particular protest honored social distancing by having the participants stay in their cars and use their horns to literally amplify the cause. Realizing that no interviews were going to happen under these conditions, I decided to record the horns and sounds of the protest. What I ended up with is three amazing hours of really powerful sounds that captured some of the “audio energy” of the movement. 

All of these recordings were then incorporated into the physical installation that grew over the course of the  residency. I approached the residency as an opportunity to develop ideas. In addition to the recordings and installation, I was able to conduct five performance art works. These included: the three “Bucket Flattening” works, “Hondo Hold your Horses” and “Plaid Sleeves.”

These images are from my Artist in Residency at Art Produce.



Art Produce Artist in Residency

The Highest High Five is an interactive work in which the audience is encouraged to attempt a 10 foot high five with the artist that as he stands on an elevated platform. Ten feet is the also the height of a regulation basketball rim, and the work is meant to give the advantage to taller participants. It was first featured in 2018 at a Ship in the Woods art and music event, and was published in the 2019 performance art journal Emergency Index 8. It will be also be an included performance in the Other Paces Art Fair September 2020.

The Highest High Five

Sweet Spot Paddle Board Desk is an interactive sculpture were the audience is encouraged to sit in the classroom-style desk and use it it as a paddle board.

Sweet Spot Paddle Board Desk

Brian and Ryan were featured artists at the 2019 Soundpedro Festival in 2019. Tub Talk is an interactive installation were people can speak to each other through the pipes that connect two bath tubs. Included in the installation was their series of Brian & Ryan Motivational Posters.

Tub Talk

The Half-Pipe Intervention series is from Brian & Ryan residency at the an Diego Art Institute in 2016. The artists interacted with the half-pipe in a series of performances: Half-Pipe Basketball, Half_Pipe Ping Pong, and Half-Pipe Lawn Darts.

Half-Pipe Interventions

Artist completes leg-lifts to serve as an incline surface for a race car track.

Doodad: Track Leg Lift

Artist serves as a tunnel by holding the plank position over an electric train.

Doodad: Plank Track-Tunnel

Plaid Sleeves was performed on June 13, 2020 as part of the closing reception for may artist in residence at Art Produce. I shoot six basketballs into an elongated net wearing six different plaid sleeves.

Plaid Sleeves

I am working on a series of endurance body performances called The Doodad. This specific performance in the series  is titled 200 Laps. In the final version, I will hold up the racing track for 200 laps of the slot car.

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