Concert: Swans with Lia Kohl and Jess Bass *OFF-SITE at Veterans Park Lagoon*
In person at the Veterans Park Lagoon
Swans is an audiovisual collaboration between Lia Kohl and Jess Bass on the Veterans Park Lagoon. An open-to-the-public performance on swan pedal boats, Kohl will compose and direct an octet for brass instruments, and Bass will create choreography and wing sculptures. The music is inspired by the calls of trumpeter swans and informed by the unique acoustics of music across water. The score will be a combination of notated and improvised portions. The choreography draws from swans’ flight and swimming patterns, creating a gliding processional parade across the Veterans Park Lagoon.
Presented by Out There, an experimental performance series curating strange sounds in unique spaces. The Out There series is dedicated to fostering deep listening, artistic exploration, and ecological awareness through outdoor performances in Milwaukee’s green spaces. By uniting poets, musicians, and performance artists from the Midwest, they create immersive experiences that highlight the interconnections between nature and sound.
Lia Kohl is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration. She tours nationally and internationally, working in theater, jazz, rock, and experimental contexts. Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound. She has presented work and performed at the Art Institute of Chicago, the MCA Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Union Station Chicago, Eckhart Park Pool, and Big Ears Festival. She has been a resident artist at ACRE, Vashon Artist Residency, High Concept Labs, dfbrl8r Performance Art Gallery, Mana Contemporary, Stanford University, and Mills College and a Transmission Art Fellow at Wave Farm. Her work has been featured in Pitchfork, Art Forum, the Chicago Tribune, The Wire, and Downbeat Magazine, and on NPR, NTS Radio, Kunstradio, BBC Radio 6 Music, Dublab, and WFMU. She has releases on Drag City, International Anthem, Moon Glyph, Longform Editions, and American Dreams Records.
Jess Bass is a multimedia artist in Chicago using play as both a process and aesthetic to create mimetic installations and performances. Her work has been exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, The Franklin, Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago Public Library, Mayfield, Comfort Station, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, PLAY/GROUND, Terrain Biennial, SITE Gallery, and Detroit Art Week; and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, ArtNews, PASTE, Fader, and MTV. Bass holds an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.