Every Dawn Jubilation Blues | Ben Seretan
Ben Seretan (Brooklyn, NY) Every Dawn Jubilation Blues (Dedicated to the Memory of Etta Baker)
June 2018. Performance series video documentation. 5 min 57 secs. Electric guitar, keyboard, microphone.
For Every Dawn, Seretan addressed each morning of his residency with an hour of public improvised singing and guitar performances from Elsewhere’s storefront theater, starting before the sun rose and ending after the street lamps turned off.
Despite rarely encountering visible audiences in the artist’s three weeks of residency, the performances were a daily act of civic engagement and a reminder of the living museum’s 24-hour presence in the south end of town.
Drawing inspiration on the Piedmont Blues style and the musical world of North Carolina, the musical performances examine the two-finger style endemic to the region and found in the music of Etta Baker: a guitarist from Caldwell County. Audio from interviews with Baker can be heard in the video documentation of the performances.
“But in that stubborn dedication to greeting each transition from night to day an important act of orientation was performed— celestial positioning, noticing the sun’s slight change in timing and location each morning, and an acknowledgment that Elsewhere continues to have a presence long after the museum is closed and residents have retired to bed.”
— Ben Seretan
Project In Response To: Signaling Hello (Greensboro), Sunrise Over Xanadu, Energy is Always Conserved, Never Created or Destroyed, Super Piano Bouncy Ball.
