MSR4 trades sound for sight

When most people go to Carrboro on a weekend night to check out an artist or two, they usually expect to find music. This Friday, that expectation will change as local artists collaborate in Minus Sound Research 4, a visual art exhibit that features the work of area musicians.

The event started when co-curators Maria Albani and John Harrison began to notice their fellow musicians’ talent for creating art off the stage about five years ago.

“At the time I was in a band called Pleasant, and we played a lot with John’s band, North Elementary,” Albani said. “We were just chatting, and at the time I was just about to graduate from UNC.

“I was an art major, and we started talking about how many musicians we knew that were making visual art but not showing it, and we weren’t really sure why.”

Both co-curators found that visual art was prevalent in the local music community, yet most artists hadn’t found a way to exhibit their work. Harrison was struck by this fact when he visited Kingsbury Manx member Bill Taylor’s house.

“I’d been to some musician friends’ houses, in particular Bill’s, and I saw some paintings and thought ‘Damn, these are really awesome.’ They ended up being his, and I had no idea,” Harrison said.

Instilled with a mission to provide musicians in the area with a space where they could show their art, Albani and Harrison began to search for venues that made sense to a pair of musicians.

“At the start, we were showing at non-traditional spaces that weren’t galleries,” said Albani.  “We wanted to make a platform to make that happen, and we approached it in a way that was similar to how we book shows.”

Harrison said, “We just put up flyers and found a bar or a coffee shop and just kind of did it the way I knew how to do it.”

From its humble beginnings in coffee shops and bars, MSR4 has moved to Carrboro’s Wootini Gallery for the second year in a row. This year’s exhibition features art by Mas Sato of Nathan Oliver, Lincoln Hancock of Strange, Laird Dixon of Shark Quest, Drew Robertson of Phon and John Kurtz of Bull City, along with work by co-curators Albani and Harrison.

Past artists have included such local heavyweights as Laura Ballance of Superchunk and Beth Tacular of Bowerbirds.

And with its impressive lineup, Mas Sato sees the event as an indicator of the talent local artists bring to the table.

“I think it speaks to the surplus of artistic creativity that’s in this local scene. There are a lot of DIY bands that record their own music, do their own artwork, do their own flyers and such,” he said.

“It’s just a representation of that spirit, of these individuals who want to do art or music and just go out and do it.”



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.