The Lycoming College Women’s and Gender Studies Program is sponsoring four members of Disturbance Collaborative during a performance in the Academic Center’s Pennington Lounge on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Disturbance brings together a group of artists whose work encourages others to reconsider their positions on the current global political climate. A reception and Q&A with the artists will be held following the event, and will feature electric violinist Ritsu Katsumata, dancer Kelly Knox, and visual artists Tulu Bayar and Lynn Estomin.  

Disturbance was first performed at The Samek Gallery at Bucknell University in December 2006. The project was inspired by an exercise that a Butoh master held, where all participants were told to sit in a circle and make as much noise as possible, using voice, pots and pans, and within a few minutes, the group fell into a groove. In Disturbance, a seemingly unconnected series of simultaneous activities converge to create a whole environment, involving the audience as well as the individual artists. Reminiscent of ’60s “Happenings,” the nature of the proposed performance crosses the boundaries of one specific medium. The participating artists will create an environment that affects as many senses as possible and creates a space for reflection on the current state of the world.  

Disturbance Collaborative is a loose-knit group of noted individual artists from across disciplines who periodically join together to present collaborative performances/happenings. The works for these events are issue-oriented and topical, often focusing on the current global political climate. During an evening of happenings, participating artists create, perform and interact with each other, and also the audience, in an unscripted manner. Sound, performance and visual forms converge to fill the space and feed off of each other in unforeseen ways that evoke the practice of Happenings. And in the spirit of Happenings, the group embraces a “carry it in/carry it out” philosophy regarding set-up, encouraging an immediacy, even incorporating set-up and breakdown into the event. 

Artist Bios:

Ritsu Katsumata was born in California in 1964 and raised in Nara, Japan, and Philadelphia. After completing a degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania, she lived and worked in New York City; Portland, Ore; Tokyo, Japan; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Lewisburg, Pa. As a classical violinist, Ritsu performed from childhood at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Smithsonian Institute and the Philadelphia Academy of Music. After college, she pursued a career in advertising and design, working for agencies with clients including Nike, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Japan Air Lines and Canon USA. In 1994, she traded in the acoustic instrument for an electric five-string violin and began composing and performing her own music at rock and roll clubs like CBGB’s as well as venerable institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Seattle Opera House. Today, she balances her performance schedule with her job as a multimedia designer/web developer for Bucknell University and raising her two young daughters with her photographer-husband Stafford Smith. 

Kelly Knox is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Bucknell University. She taught at Mimar Sinan State Conservatory in Istanbul, Turkey, from 1999-2001, and served on the faculty of North Carolina’s Governor School for five years. Prior to teaching, Kelly danced professionally in New York, San Francisco and Istanbul. She earned a B.F.A. from the North Carolina School of the Arts and an M.F.A. in dance from the University of Washington.

Tulu Bayar was born in Turkey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and photojournalism from the University of Ankara and an M.F.A. in electronic arts and photography from the University of Cincinnati. Bayar has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues both in the U.S. and Europe including the Center for Photography at Woodstock, N.Y.; 825 Gallery in Los Angeles; Artemisia Gallery in Chicago; Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul; Camac Centre D’art in France; Galerie Image in Denmark, D-21 in Germany; Current Gallery in Baltimore; Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati; Ankara Photographic Arts Center; Pittsburgh Filmmakers Media Arts Center; The Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado and The Society for Contemporary Photography in Kansas City. Her work has recently been acquired by Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art. Bayar also has received various artist-in-residency grants, most notably from the Camac Centre D’art funded by Tenot Foundation in France and the Center for Photography at Woodstock funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. Bayar has been teaching photography and multimedia courses as an assistant professor at Bucknell University for five years. 

Lynn Estomin is a video director and photographer who has been creating art on social issues for 30 years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally, including the AFI Film & Video Festival, Ajijic Festival Internacional de Cine de Mexico, Barcelona Independent Video Festival, Canadian International Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Festival Der Nationen, Louisville Film Festival, Philadelphia Independent Film & Video Festival, Athens International Film Festival and others. Her work has been broadcast nationally on PBS and broadcast in Beijing and Barcelona. After years of working in a factory, as a graphic designer and as director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood, Estomin became a student, earning an M.F.A. in electronic art from the University of Cincinnati. She is experimenting with narrative storytelling for the Web. Estomin teaches photography and digital art at Lycoming College, where she is chair of the Art Department.

For more information, contact N.J. Stanley, coordinator, Women’s and Gender Studies Program,

stanley@lycoming.edu

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