Good Press and Baked Beans On The Doorstep present a book launch for “With Objects In Time” a book of interviews with Sandra Johnston by Mónica Laiseca with live music from Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh & Nathan Wheeler.
The book will be introduced through a conversation with Sandra Johnston and Mónica Laiseca.
This book has come about through an attempt to hold on to the experi-
ence of encountering Sandra Johnston’s performance practice, working from
some of the images, feelings, connections and questions that it provoked
in me as impetus for starting a conversation. Presented here are two inter-
views that I conducted with Sandra in the winter of 2019, held just a few
weeks apart in Newcastle and Glasgow, which have been transcribed and
reconfigured as a series of fragments of conversations, and later intercalated
with photographs and documents relating to the objects and live actions
recalled in them.
The interviews were driven by my desire to be in the space of the objects
that Sandra performs with, to see her actions from their vantage point and
get to know their stories. A glass of water, a pair of tights, a belt, a table, a
pair of football boots, a fan, an eyelash.
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh is a viola player exploring the tonal possibilities of gut strings and wood in both amplified and acoustic contexts. Amalgamations of influences from improvised, traditional and early music styles can be heard on solo recordings Oreing (Fort Evil Fruit 2017), The Rounds (KRUT 2021) and most recently Live At Sonic Acts (Scatter Archive 2023). She lives in Glasgow where she plays in free-improv quartet Dome Riders with Fritz Welch, Armin Sturm and Mike Parr-Burman. An active collaborator, Nic Oireachtaigh has toured with experimental Irish bands Woven Skull and Cian Nugent & the Cosmos and has performed internationally with artists Josephine Foster and Circuit des Yeux. She has created music for theatre works by Isadora Epstein and collaboratively with Pat Thomas and Rhodri Davies. In May 2022 she composed New Mountain, Reaching Plane, a surround sound piece for orchestral and gamelan musicians as a commission for BBC Scotland’s Tectonics Festival.
Nathan Wheeler is a composer, improviser, choreographer, media artist, and educator based in the United States. Their work focuses on hybridizing the contemporary, the traditional, and the imaginary to synthesize stunning new approaches to art making and community building.Using custom code, synthesis, live instruments, and aural imagination, Wheeler crafts a vast array of sounds — ambient soundscapes, dense distorted textures, infectious beats, and lush orchestrations — that encourage introspection and emotional presence. Wheeler often writes poetic texts as scores for guided improvisation. They hand-build electronic interfaces to merge body and instrument, and build circuits to tap into unseen forces and activate audiences. They further augment live performances with their video, choreography, and collaborations with other artists.Wheeler has opened for William Basinsky, Tim Hecker, Josephine Foster, and many other noteworthy performers. Their works and collaborations have been shown at venues around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, Museum of the Moving Image, Fridman Gallery, and various Off-Broadway theaters in New York, as well as museums and venues in Berlin, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vienna, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Houston, and Denver. Additionally, they are Composer-in-Residence for Bitedown Dance Company in Brooklyn, NY.
