𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘜𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤, 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 1 brings together an imagined archive of bands and musicians, each with their own histories, recordings, and visual worlds. For this project, artist and musician Sonny Smith (
@sunnyandthesunsets ) invited artists to create album covers for these fictional acts, and collected fictional accounts of the bands in a zine (on sale for $10 at the museum), blurring the line between music history and storytelling. Here’s an excerpt:
𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧: 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗟𝗘𝗚 𝗜𝗗𝗔
Album artwork by Phoebe Helander (
@phoebehelander ), Barry McGee, Jeffrey Sincich (
@jeffreysincich ) and Sonny Smith (
@sunnyandthesunsets )
“Named Big Leg Ida at birth, she lived with a leg-length discrepancy that meant one leg was significantly shorter than the other. She traveled with a small stool, handmade by her father/uncle, inscribed with the line, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even the past.’
By eleven, she was leading a gang known for arson and burglary. Music came later, after breaking into and burning down a music store.
Ida began writing songs in juvenile hall in the early 1960s. Without access to recording equipment in prison, she relied on notation, recording only during brief stretches of freedom.
In prison, she formed bands, trained as a fighter, handled rattlesnakes, and treated incarceration as part of her process. Her discography unfolded in fragments between sentences.
In 2017, her run came to an end. She died quietly in the backseat of a getaway car after robbing a bookstore that specialized in Braille books for the blind.”
Join us this Sunday, May 17th from 4-7PM for a closing celebration of the show, featuring live performances by Chris Cohen and Rhinestone Sunsets (aka the Fuckaroos aka Rhinestone Barbarians), with food and wine pop-ups by
@loba.earth and
@rotoscopewine . Free and open to all!
