Recently, we got the chance to talk with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, and in this issue you can catch up on some of his delightfully eccentric visions . Those of us who were around in the late ’90s might remember the fanfare attendant in gathering your friends—and their CD players—in order to play all four CDs of Zaireeka at once (Coyne originally wanted it to be 100). So it seems fitting that he’s created an interactive art exhibit along with the group’s latest album.
While that installation, “King’s Mouth,” is currently all the way out in Arkansas, you can hear its musical accompaniment on August 6, when the The Flaming Lips play the Pavilion. And that’s just one of many otherworldly art experiences to be had this week. On Friday evening, gallery hop from Rayne MacPhee’s honeybee-focused exhibition “Swarm” at the Welcome Gallery to Bernie McCabe’s works of spray paint, oil, and acrylic at Ix, “each with a solvable maze.”
And don’t miss “Memorial,” an immersive audio/visual installation at Chroma Projects that reflects on the African American perspective and is “built around loss, remembrance, and veneration.” Constructed by talented local artist Bolanle Adeboye, whose collaged light boxes recently lit up Live Arts, the project will include a live performance on Friday, and a “Sound Map” that’s an homage to Black activists, past and present.
As we approach the second anniversary of August 11 and 12, 2017, it seems like just the sort of work we need. Art can be transcendent, taking us away from the mundane details of our daily lives. But it can also be transformative, helping
us to be right where we are, and live through it.