NOBUO KUBOTA | SONIC SCORES
SATURDAY 11 JANUARY 2014-SATURDAY 08 MARCH 2014

OPENING RECEPTION | FRIDAY 10 JANUARY 2014, 8:00PM TO 10:00PM
At 9:00PM, Nobuo Kubota will give a vocal performance.

KUBOTA_IMAGE

NOBUO KUBOTA | SONIC SCORES

Nobuo Kubota’s exhibition Sonic Scores represents a continuing engagement with sound that goes back to 1962 with the formation of the Artists’ Jazz Band, the improvising orchestra the CCMC between 1974 & 1990, the formation of the Music Gallery by the CCMC in 1975, and his introduction to sound poetry in 1984. In 1985, he constructed the Sound Cage within which he performed with the CCMC. Kubota also performed Mouth Mechanics at YYZ in 1992. The exploration and experimentation of phonics was followed by intermedia works of three dimensional phonics titled Phonic Slices, Deep Text, and Phonic Traces. He created a video titled Loop Holes in 2002, an installation of vocal sound poetry on nine randomly arranged monitors. These events have in common his search for free expression and free improvisation in music and sound.

Kubota began to develop a personal style of calligraphy more suited to new vocal sounds, electronic vocal manipulation, and noise related sounds which belonged more to the term sonics around 2002. In early 2013, as he was examining some of these calligraphic scores drawn around the year 2004, his attention focused on three scores titled Sonic Scores for Double Bass, Cello, and Violin. These scores were drawn with a fine Chinese calligraphy brush on a 10 x 13 size paper, almost in miniature. He examined these scores under magnification and discovered a world of details and attitudes that were not obvious with the naked eye. As sonic scores, these details were important as suggestions for improvisation. Kubota also discovered another set of drawings that had been exposed to toner manipulation. This exhibit is about the discovery and revelation of aspects of the 2006 Sonic Scores and its relationship to improvisation.

NOBUO KUBOTA is a multi-media artist whose work includes sculpture, installations, video, music, and sound poetry. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Toronto (1959), and Doctor of Fine Art, Honoris Causa, from OCAD University (2011). He recently exhibited at the “LIVE” International Performance Art Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia. (2011), the Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, British Columbia (2010), and at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario (2009). He received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2009). Kubota currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

Read Nobuo Kubota in Conversation with W. Mark Sutherland, a text published alongside NOBUO KUBOTA‘S exhibition.