Artists in Residence

Xiu Xiu tries to make music for people opposed to and opposed by the horror and disquiet of life.

They have been called “self flagellating,” “harsh,” “brutal,” “shocking,” and “perverse;” but also “genius,” “brilliant,” “unique,” “imaginative,” and “luminous.”

Xiu Xiu draws upon musical traditions of British post punk, 20th century classical, industrial noise, experimental and traditional percussion musics, 50s rock and roll, field recordings, queer dance pop and kosmische musik.

Over the last two decades Xiu Xiu released 20 studio albums, collaborated with Merzbow, Dahn Vo, Eugene Robinson, Haitian drumming master Daniel Brevil. Mantra Percussion, and Lawrence English and recorded reinterpretations of the music of Nina Simone (NINA), American religious songs (Unclouded Sky), Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and the music of Twin Peaks (Plays The Music of Twin Peaks). They are also frequent contributors to the Berlin based art collective CHEAP.

Xiu Xiu has toured relentlessly all over the world. They have shared stages with Sun Ra Arkestra, Ben Frost, Zola Jesus, Deerhoof, Prurient, Liars, Swans, Matmos, Faust, Grouper, Genesis P Orridge, Angelo Badalamenti and thousands, perhaps billions, of other unstoppable musical fairies, dignitaries and saints. 

They have created museum installations for the Berlin and Venice biennales, The Guggenheim, LACMA, the Getty Museum, Walker Museum and Laguna Art Museum.

Both members also work outside of Xiu Xiu. Hyunhye Seo is a video director and has a growing solo experimental and noise music practice. Jamie Stewart is a recording and remix engineer and will have his first novel published next year.

The band’s 21st album will be released in March of 2023.

Artist and filmmaker Oliver Husain is based in Toronto, Canada. Husain’s projects often begin with fragment of history, a rumour, a personal encounter or a distant memory. He uses a wide range of cinematic languages and visual pleasures — such as dance, puppetry, costume, special effects — to animate his research and fold the viewers into complex narrative set-ups.
 

The work of video- and film artist Shelly Silver (born 1957, New York) may best be described as something akin to experimental documentary. After graduating with a dual Bachelor in Intellectual History and Mixed Media from the University Cornell in 1980, she attended the San Francisco Art Institute’s Summer School and subsequently found the medium which still captivates her to this day: Film. She further engaged with the medium at the Whitney Studio Program, followed up by work as a film editor, the results of which are still visible in her meticulously composed films. Fellowships from Germany and Japan allowed her to visit both countries in the years following 1992. The resulting films Former East/Former West (1994) and 37 Stories About Leaving Home (1996) explore questions about the formation of cultural identity and gender. Silver's work in film, video, and photography spans an eclectic range of subject matter and genres, exploring the personal and societal relations that identify and restrict us. Besides her artistic work, Silver is Associate Professor and Director of Moving Image of the Visual Arts Program at Columbia University.

Her work has been exhibited at the MoMa in New York, Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Yokohama Museum, London ICA as well as film festivals in London, Singapur, New York, Moscow and Berlin.
 

Maha Maamoun is an intermedial artist, working primarily in the medium of film and photography. Born 1972 in California, at age five her family moved to Kairo, where Maamoun has been living and working ever since. After completing her studies of economy, she graduated from the Masters Program in Middle Eastern History at the American University Cairo. In 2004 she co-founded the independent art initiative Contemporary Image Collective (CIC). Maamouns own work focuses on the impact and reception of photographic images and new media. Maamoun disrupts and renders visible structure of viewing through intervening in her photographic material, by means of techniques like collaging, cutting, editing, montage and digital rendering, using material ranging from found footage and Youtube videos to film extracts.

Maamouns work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; MoMA, ICP, New Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; MuHKA, Antwerp; MATHAF – Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Beirut Art Center, Beirut; Makan, Amman; Steirischer Herbst, Graz; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Haus der Kunst, Munich. Her Solo-Shows include Lingering in Vicinity at the Gypsum Gallery in 2014, The Night of Counting the Years at Fridericianum Kassel in 2014 und The Law of Existence at the Sursock Museum Beirut in 2017.