Peter Van Riper
Encyclopedia
Peter van Riper was a sound and light environment artist, musician and pioneer of laser art and holography
.
, Michigan, the son of a psychoanalyst and an avid record collector. During the 1960s he received a B.A. Far Eastern History, and Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
graduated in Art History at Tokyo University, and took part in Fluxus
performances and exhibitions in Japan. He later appeared on Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
#24 FluxTellus, Harvestworks, 1990, as part of an ensemble performing George Maciunas
's Solo For Lips And Tongue. He collaborated with Fluxus members during exhibitions and performances, but Van Riper's influences are much wider. He is a true sound artist whose music is often inspired by Far Eastern traditions from Japan or Indonesia.
From 1967 to 1970, van Riper was a member of Editions Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan gallery of holography
, animated along laser physicist Lloyd Cross
and artist Jerry Pethick (1935–2003). In 1970 they organized an exhibition at the Cranbrook Academy, and at the Finch College
Museum in New York. Both Cross and Pethick co-founded the School of Holography, San Francisco, California. Van Riper exhibited holograms during The Nature Of Light: Exploring Unconventional Photographic Techniques exhibition, Joyce Goldstein Gallery, New York, 1996, and also created a sound performance during the exhibition opening.
Since the late 1970s, Van Riper has worked with dancer Simone Forti
, providing lighting design and live sound accompaniment to her dance performances. An avant garde dancer and choreographer, Forti took part to some of Allan Kaprow
's 1960s happenings and specialized in improvised dancing. While working with her, Van Piper mostly used soprano and sopranino saxophones but also various devices and objects or even tape music. He also moved freely around the stage and dancer.
With visual artist Eugènia Balcells
Van Riper provided what he calls Acoustic Metal Music and small percussion works to Barcelona video and installation artist Eugènia Balcells (born 1943), who settled in New York from 1979 to 1988. For TV Weave, an installation with TV screens first showed at Metrònom gallery, Barcelona, 1985, Peter van Riper played chiming music from suspended aluminium baseball bats. An excerpt from aluminium baseball bats music can be found on The Aerial #4 CD. Says Balcells:
With performance artist Sha Sha Higby
Van Riper collaborated with yet another performance artist: Sha Sha Higby.
and percussionist Z'EV
, during a show called Language/Theater: Language/Noise, at Martinson Hall, Public Theatre, New York. That same year he took part to a collective exhibition called Young Fluxux, Artists Space gallery, New York, 1982.
He composed music for Seven Days in Space, a 90' video of NASA space exploration:
Appears on:
Holography
Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
.
Biography
Van Riper was born in Detroit's Inner CityInner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
, Michigan, the son of a psychoanalyst and an avid record collector. During the 1960s he received a B.A. Far Eastern History, and Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
graduated in Art History at Tokyo University, and took part in Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
performances and exhibitions in Japan. He later appeared on Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
#24 FluxTellus, Harvestworks, 1990, as part of an ensemble performing George Maciunas
George Maciunas
George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers...
's Solo For Lips And Tongue. He collaborated with Fluxus members during exhibitions and performances, but Van Riper's influences are much wider. He is a true sound artist whose music is often inspired by Far Eastern traditions from Japan or Indonesia.
From 1967 to 1970, van Riper was a member of Editions Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan gallery of holography
Holography
Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
, animated along laser physicist Lloyd Cross
Lloyd Cross
Lloyd Cross is an American physicist and holographer.As a physicist, Cross' research started in the 1950s, and focused primarily on masers and lasers at Willow Run Laboratories, at the University of Michigan...
and artist Jerry Pethick (1935–2003). In 1970 they organized an exhibition at the Cranbrook Academy, and at the Finch College
Finch College
Finch College was a baccalaureate women's college located in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It began as a finishing school for wealthy young women and later evolved into a liberal arts college...
Museum in New York. Both Cross and Pethick co-founded the School of Holography, San Francisco, California. Van Riper exhibited holograms during The Nature Of Light: Exploring Unconventional Photographic Techniques exhibition, Joyce Goldstein Gallery, New York, 1996, and also created a sound performance during the exhibition opening.
Collaborations
With choreographer Simone FortiSince the late 1970s, Van Riper has worked with dancer Simone Forti
Simone Forti
Simone Forti , a postmodern American choreographer and musician, was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age. Throughout her career she became known for a style of dancing and choreography that was largely based on basic everyday movements, such as games and children's...
, providing lighting design and live sound accompaniment to her dance performances. An avant garde dancer and choreographer, Forti took part to some of Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
's 1960s happenings and specialized in improvised dancing. While working with her, Van Piper mostly used soprano and sopranino saxophones but also various devices and objects or even tape music. He also moved freely around the stage and dancer.
With visual artist Eugènia Balcells
Van Riper provided what he calls Acoustic Metal Music and small percussion works to Barcelona video and installation artist Eugènia Balcells (born 1943), who settled in New York from 1979 to 1988. For TV Weave, an installation with TV screens first showed at Metrònom gallery, Barcelona, 1985, Peter van Riper played chiming music from suspended aluminium baseball bats. An excerpt from aluminium baseball bats music can be found on The Aerial #4 CD. Says Balcells:
With performance artist Sha Sha Higby
Van Riper collaborated with yet another performance artist: Sha Sha Higby.
Other works
On December 6, 1982, he performed together with Jackson Mac LowJackson Mac Low
Jackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle...
and percussionist Z'EV
Z'EV
Z'EV is an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels...
, during a show called Language/Theater: Language/Noise, at Martinson Hall, Public Theatre, New York. That same year he took part to a collective exhibition called Young Fluxux, Artists Space gallery, New York, 1982.
He composed music for Seven Days in Space, a 90' video of NASA space exploration:
List of sound works
- The Simple Existence of Any One Thing, in 'Everson Video 75', Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, 1975
- Big Room for kalimba, saxophones and plastic hose (w/ Forti choreography), 1975
- Red Green (w/ Forti choreography), 1975
- Plumbing Music, tape music created for a Simone Forti choreography 'Planet', 1976
- Three From Piru for a Simone Forti choreography 'Fan Dance', 1975
- This, a 3 channel installation with book, The Kitchen, New York, NY, December 1976
- It readings for performance, The Kitchen, New York, NY, December 1976
- Art on the Beach collective exhibition, Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, NY, 1978
- Home Base for plastic hose named 'molino', moku gyo (Japanese wooden bell) and mbira (African thumb piano), for a Simone Forti choreography, The Kitchen, New york 1979
- Indian Cicle for sopranino (video performance by Eugènia Balcells), 1981
- TV Weave, for aluminium baseball bats, music for Eugènia Balcells' installation, Metrònom gallery, Barcelona, 1985
- Sound/Light for Japanese gong to a Eugènia Balcells installation, Metrònom gallery, Barcelona and Experimental Intermedia Foundation, NY, 1985
- Shadows, sound installation w/ Eugènia Balcells, Roulette, NY, 1987
- Seeing/Hearing, 1991 (w/ Forti choreography)
- Collaboration, 1991 (w/ Forti choreography)
Recorded music
- Sound To Movement. New Music For Saxophones, LP, 1979 VRBLU, (A-1982-48)
- Room Space. New Music For Saxophones, LP, 1981 VRBLU (A-1982-49)
- Windows to the Sky , LP
- Music for Spaces, LP
- Indian Circle", cassette, self-release
- Direct Contact, cassette, Deep Listening Institute
- Sustainable Music, cassette, Deep Listening Institute
- Music for Spaces CD, Van Riper Editions, 1997
- Marking Time CD-ROM, in collaboration with Jerry Pethick, Kamloops Art Gallery, 1998
Appears on:
- George Maciunas Solo For Lips And Tongue, included in Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
#24 FluxTellus, Harvestworks, 1990 - Heart included in The Aerial #4 cassette & CD, What Next? label, 1991
- Acoustic Metal Music included in Anti-Disc I, 33rpm flexi disc, Anti-Utopia, 1990
- NAP CD Connection, CD published by New Arts Program, Pennsylvania