Dec 2023: “Music For Hard Times is coming to NYC’s Kaufman Center in 2024

Music For Hard Times Books 1 & 2 will be performed in their entirety at a classical music show in Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center in NYC. I have been commissioned to mount a live immersive visual program for the entire 17-part performance. Featuring Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School Choir conducted by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

Date Thursday Feb 8, 2024

Venue: Kaufman Center, NYC

Tickets: link here

Music For Hard Times was created by Living Earth Show, an SF-based electric guitar and percussion chamber ensemble, to answer a fundamental question: “Is it possible for us to use the tools of classical art music to make people feel better?” The work was composed by Danny Clay and this show will feature a completely new instrumentation for a live performance.

Nov 2023: “Visit Crete”paperbacks have arrived.

I’m excited to announce that paperback copies of my book project from my summer artist residency in Crete have arrived from the printers!  “An Interesting Voyage to Near Europe’s Southermost Point” is an illustrated atlas-travelogue-artistic quest I made over the course of a month in summer 2023.  I decided produce commercially printed copies of the original hand sewed hardcover book. I worked to mimic the feel and variety of the original pages and it came out ????????. I’m so pleased. All the original pages were made on the road using typewriter, office/postal supplies, and pen & ink. Leaf prints from tentpole species are featured throughout.!Limited number of copies available.Special thanks to the individuals who helped me along the way and @mudhouseart .

Original edition of 25 | 116 page full color book | 5.5 x 8.5 inches | 2023

Thank You——————-

Kristin Roeder
Ou-Yang, Tsu
Patrick McGhian
Jenny Carolin
Varvara Liakounakou

Dr. K. EmmanoyhΔ
Sarah Senk & Adam Auton
Ella Sams
Courtney Googe
Nowell Valeri

Jamie Borschuk
Danny Clay
Mandy Johnstone
Michelle Fischer

Oct 2023: Turntable Drawing no. 16 performed live in a San Francisco church

A new instrumentation of TTD16 was performed in front of some sweet, sweet stained glass. The performance appeared at Ninth Planet Music’s Fall Concert at Noe Valley Ministry in SF. This piece was originally composed by Danny Clay for solo electric guitar and now re-imagined for six new instruments alongside Giacomo Fiore (Electric Guitar) as soloist. Danny devised a ???? panoramic positioning scheme for the musicians, immersing the audience.

Players
Giacomo Fiore solo electric guitar    Jessie Nucho flute
Jon Szin bass clarinet    Kevin Rogers violin
Kyle Stachnik cello    Brendan Lai-Tong trombone
Eugène Theriault double bass   Jon Fischer homemade records

TTD16 page
•TTD16 vinyl on Bandcamp page
• Ninth Planet Music website
Danny Clay Website

August 2023: Artist Residency in Crete concludes

Photo by Jaime Borschuk — Mural by Davey Barnwell

I’ve just concluded a one month of creative work on the island of Crete. I spent two weeks in the village of Agios Ioannis as an artist-in-residence at Mudhouse Residency. Then I was on location throughout the island, exploring and creating an artist book.

I was back with my friends at Creekside Arts, completing a two-summer project rooted in the topography and ecology of the Humboldt Bay.

i. HUMBOLDT BAY ATLAS

16 page zine (8 colors) | Edition of 200 | 5.5 x 8.5 inches

A survey of the entire Humboldt Bay Watershed.  Five principle watersheds drain into the bay, and are mapped here with all minor tributaries. The maps are presented alongside contextual information and reproductions of local print advertisements from the 1930s to present day.

All maps are original using research from government data, ecological surveys, and field research. Printed and distributed locally in the Arcata-Eureka area. Publicly displayed at The Sanctuary in Arcata.

ii. NEW CERAMIC SCULPTURES

ceramic cast | 12 x 8 x 4 inches

Casts of redwood bark and 100 year old Humboldt County redwood lumber. The triangular prism that has been removed are smaller companion sculptures that can be displayed alongside or embedded within the work. Publicly displayed at The Sanctuary in Arcata.

iii. BEE SHED INSTALLATION

immersive installation with looping multimedia program | two-day installation

 

Features two channel video w/ looping score for guitar (looping video) and celesta (looping homemade record). Installed in a Humboldt County bee keeping shed. Open to the public at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA for two days during an open studio exhibition.

iv. CREEKSIDE ARTS MAP collaboration with Ella Sams

pen & ink with typewriter on paper | 100 digital prints | 8.5 x 11 inches

A new map for the 2023 Creekside Arts Spring Artist in Residency Program.

 

v. EXHIBITION IN ARCATA

Solo exhibition of all the above projects and collaborations at The Sanctuary in Arcata. Curated with Erica Davie and Katie Belknap. On display for six weeks starting July Summer 2023. Open event featuring contributions from Danny Clay and Oneomeball.

 

7/30/22: LAND group show at Drawing Room Annex

Recent works will be exhibited at this group show at The Drawing Room Annex in San Francisco.

LAND———————————————

Curated by Renée DeCarlo and Courtney Norris

Group show featuring work that explores themes related to the topic of land – through materials, process, concept, context. It is the first in a series of three shows addressing our relationship to environmental and human justice issues How is the earth we stand on, divided, conquered and exploited by our human interests, interventions and need to survive and subsist?

Drawing Room Annex
780 Valencia Street
San Francisco

Exhibition Dates: JULY 30th – SEPTEMBER 4th, 2022
Opening Reception:  JULY 30th (4-9pm)
Closing Reception: SEPTEMBER 3rd (4-9pm)

HOURS:
Sunday- Thursday 11-7
Friday – Saturday 11-9

———————————————————————————

 

6/15/22: Creekside Residency in Humboldt County concludes

I wrapped my three week artist residency at @creekside.arts in gorgeous Humboldt County California. I spent my time exploring, shooting video, making ceramics, playing music & singing, running, cooking, drawing, collecting, typewriting, sewing, and wielding fire for various purposes. I did not bring any printmaking equipment but ended up imprinting local plants from the road we are staying on using direct ink transfers. My final exhibit was a multimedia installation in my gazebo studio that exhibited older printed matter and various ongoing studies in conversation with work I did here based on explorations of the Eureka area. The film is a collab with writer/musician @haydenmcasey13

March 2022: New film short

I am working on a new nine-part film for Living Earth Show, an SF-based electric guitar and percussion chamber ensemble. This is part 2 from from Music For Hard Times Book 2, composed by Danny Clay. Performed with the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

In the follow-up film to MFHT Book 1, I am utilizing vertical video shot using cell phones. I’m excited to explore the possibilities this will open for filling the traditional horizontal frame of a widescreen film.

This particular chapter (Book 2 Part 2) is very personal to me. It was shot away from home, in the midst of tragedy, fear, and what will surely always be one the hardest times of my life. At the time, documenting the Marin County places in this piece helped keep me grounded and preoccupied. It’s a snapshot of the beauty around me during this particular Hard Time, and an important reminder. We can’t always see it, but the beauty is always there.

8/15/21: Dual Show with Suki Berry at Four Barrel Coffee

“Musical in Nature”
Jon Fischer & Suki Berry

Through Jan 7 2022

Four Barrel Coffee
375 Valencia St. | San Francisco

Featuring lots of new work, including three Explosions. I am excited to be part of the (tentative) re-opening of San Francisco!

11/6/20: Turntable Drawing No. 36 release

An Illustrated Audio Voyage: Free mail art

Turntable Drawing No. 36 consists of a new twenty-nine minute audio work presented alongside a large format illustrated guide. Presented by the Look and Listen Festival in Brooklyn, this tactile project will be mailed directly to the audience and continues Look + Listen’s mission to provide unique interactions between music and visual spaces free of charge, following the cancellation of our 2020 festival due to the global pandemic.

7/1/20: Music For Hard Times full film and album are live!

Film on Youtube
Album on bandcamp.

6/1/20: Music For Hard Times will be featured on “Living Music,” a podcast and concert series, hosted by Nadia Sirota. Myself, The Living Earth Show, and Danny Clay will be in conversation with Nadia, and two of the seven parts of the video will be featured.The show airs at 9PM Eastern on Tuesday June 23. Link here.

5/1/20: The 2020 Look and Listen festival in NYC is postponed. Stay healthy, humanity.

2/1/20: Turntable Drawings, my multimedia collaboration with composer Danny Clay based on growing collection of handmade records, will be featured as the ambient experience in the 2020 Look and Listen Festival in NYC.

12/11/19: This a new and hopefully last ever Jon Fischer website.

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