Digital, Color, 2022
Designed by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, Portal is a thirty-six-foot-tall black tubular steel sculpture. Both reviled and revered since its installation in 1976, it has become an icon of the city’s civic core. Its pared-down form is deceptive because it shifts constantly as you circle it, framing and reframing the surrounding structures.
Portal serves as the instrument and site for Joe Namy’s Songs for a Set (2022), a series of live music and sound performances conceived and organized by artist as part of his ongoing engagement with the life and oeuvre of legendary composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and teacher Halim El Dabh (born 1921 in Cairo; died 2017 in Kent, OH).
Digital, Color, 2020
An aesthetic exploration of the forms and textures present within the pedestrian bridge relinking Mexicantown in Detroit.
“In the late 1960’s a significant community in Southwest Detroit, Mexicantown, was abruptly interrupted by the introduction of two interstate highways which split the vibrant immigrant neighborhood. In 1998, Michigan Department of Transportation unveiled a proposal for a new multi-million dollar highway interchange expansion, the Ambassador Bridge Gateway Project, which would encompass the complete transformation of the busiest international border crossing in North America. In an effort to mitigate further divide, the Federal Highway Administration sponsored an international design competition for a new pedestrian bridge aiming to reconnect the Mexicantown community.”
Digital, Color, 2019
Photography for The Seventh Automobile, the seventh of a series of variable channel sound performances by Joesph Namy. Utilizing cars with super modified stereo systems, the 2019 performance took place at Abu Dhabi corniche for Durub Al Tawaya with guest sound selectors DJ Hosh and Karrouhat.
To read more about Namy’s Automobile performance series, click here.
