Emily Wells: Regards to the End | E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One

Emily Wells, multi-disciplinary artist Alan Pierson, conductor Ian Chang, percussion David Baldwin, multi-instrumentalist and singer Tuçe Yasak, lighting designer Elita Kang, violin Jenny Ahn, violin Steven O. Laraia, viola Will Chow, cello Benjamin Levy, bass Clint Foreman, flute Thomas Martin, clarinet Kai-Yun Lu, clarinets Andrew Sandwick, bass clarinet Jason Snider, horn

Multi-disciplinary artist Emily Wells will create an evocative one-night experience merging pop, chamber music, and visual art in a live performance of Regards to the End, her 2022 album. This performance will be the fullest live realization to date of the ambitious set of 10 works presented as expanded cinema with 12-piece orchestration. Regards to the End is informed by the lives and work of American choreographers and visual artists, particularly those with ties to the AIDS crisis working in the 1980s and 1990s (Kiki Smith, Bill T. Jones, Arnie Zane, David Wojnarowicz, Alvin Baltrop, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jenny Holzer, Nayland Blake). Centrally, the work is built from the question, “What can artists working at the beginning of the AIDS crisis teach us about how to be artists, people, living and working during climate catastrophe?” The answers often point to a simple truth: we need each other.

This evening will feature Wells, musicians, and Emily’s video work, which utilizes archival footage of early AIDS activism in America, clips of modern and contemporary dance, and captured moments of extreme climate events. She will also be joined on stage by conductor Alan Pierson (Alarm Will Sound), drummer and composer Ian Chang (Son Lux), and multi-instrumentalist and singer David Baldwin. The show will be lit and designed by Tuçe Yasak.

Boston premiere, co-presented with ICA/Boston