"LP" - work by Walter Kitundu

Opens May 12 through June 17, 2006

For over six years, Kitundu has focused his imagination on discovering the potential of the record player as a medium for sound and artistic expression. This process has resulted in hand built turntables powered by the wind and rain, fire and earthquakes, birds, light, and the force of the ocean’s waves and tides. Kitundu believes that the physical properties of a record are a natural link to the exploration and interpretation of the world around us, and such, has invented a new instrument family called “Phonoharps.”

Kitundu’s collaborators have included dancer/choreographer Joanna Haigood/Zaccho Dance, and recording artists Douglas Ewart and Meshell N'degeocello. Most recently, he was commissioned by The Kronos Quartet to build instruments and compose.. He performed last month with the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall.

In 2002, Kitundu was part of an engaging three person show at the luggage store with Edgar Arceneaux and Kamau Amu Patton, where he created and installed Mutato Nomine de te Fabula Naratur, a month-long site-specific work that invited a population of urban pigeons to take shelter inside a “creative” enclosure built into the windows of the gallery. Birds would perch inside the built space, visible outside to the public, but only in the gallery through “looking” holes. The weight of the birds triggered sound installations and turntables inside the gallery.

Raised in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Kitundu performs, composes for dance, theater and films, and teaches multi-disciplinary workshops on sound, imagination and instrument building. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.