FIGHT SONG | Steve Parker

Art League Houston (ALH) is proud to present FIGHT SONG, an exhibition by Austin-based artist Steve Parker. FIGHT SONG is an installation and performance featuring a National College Athletic Association (NCAA) marching band performing sonic meditations. The project examines themes of healing, injury, and labor in football, drawing from legacies of sonic therapy, including 12th c. abbess Hildegard von Bingen’s liturgical songs, Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice, Anthony Braxton’s radical marching bands, and Guadalupe Maravilla’s Disease Thrower sculptures.
FIGHT SONG materializes in two forms: as a sculptural installation and as a halftime-style performance. The installation works like an immersive musical composition featuring an ecosystem of automated sonic sculptures made from salvaged marching band instruments. As audiences come into the gallery, they enter a constellation of invented instruments suspended from above and around them – like an exploded technical drawing of a marching band.
Parallel with the installation, the project includes a series of video works featuring an NCAA marching band performing sonic healing meditations in public spaces. The band, marching in full regalia, performs routines that activate the exhibition space with elements of continuous, live performance.

Artist will discuss the complex intersections of music, sport, art, sonic warfare, and healing at a public talk on Saturday, 12/17

Interactive installation for sustained visitor engagement

This project is generously supported by the Music Academy of the West Alumni Enterprise Award and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.