Hockey Seen: A Nightmare in Three Periods and Sudden Death

For Immediate Release

September 15, 2006

Exhibition Featuring Hockey Seen: A Nightmare in Three Periods and Sudden Death, a multi-media performance piece by philosopher Nelson Goodman with choreography by Martha Armstrong Gray, music by composer John Adams, and drawings by Katharine Sturgis running from September 28, 2006 through January 14, 2007

Milwaukee, WI - The Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University is pleased to present the multi-media exhibition Hockey Seen: A Nightmare in Three Periods and Sudden Death by philosopher Nelson Goodman. This exhibition challenges the usual boundaries between athletics and art. It will feature a video installation of the 1980 Belgian Television production of Hockey Seen resulting from the collaborative efforts of Goodman, visual artist Katharine Sturgis, choreographer Martha Armstrong Gray, electronic music composer John Adams, and media design and technology specialist Gerd Stern. The exhibition will also include original drawings by Sturgis, costumes by Carole Swin, posters, photographs, and programs from the earlier presentations.

The opening reception will be on October 19^th beginning at 6 p.m. The exhibition will also be shown during the annual meeting of the American Society of Aesthetics in Milwaukee from October 25-28.

The project was initially conceived when Goodman saw the energetic live action drawings of hockey scenes done by Sturgis who was inspired by hockey games that played on a black and white television. The performance project incorporates these calligraphic drawings as projected images while the dancers, in hockey-like attire, blend the worlds of sport and fine arts. The musical score for the piece embodies the energy and adrenaline-driven tempo of a hockey game. Hockey fans, dance and drama enthusiasts, as well as appreciators of visual art will all find something of interest in this exhibit.

Hockey Seen evolved out of the arts education project named Project Zero that was hosted by Harvard University in 1972 and focused on bringing the arts to wider audiences. "Arts education from Goodman's perspective is aimed at changing and broadening human experience through engagement with visual art, dance, music, and literature and connecting these experiences to other areas of knowledge in the sciences, the humanities and the professional fields," said Dr. Curtis Carter, director of the Haggerty.

In notes apparently from Goodman�s hand, Hockey Seen is described as related to his writings as a philosopher. It is a nonverbal embodiment and illustration of some of the principles explained and advocated in his articles and his books Languages of Art and Ways of Worldmaking. He has argued that the arts must be taken no less seriously than the sciences as ways of creating and comprehending the worlds we live in. In Goodman�s view, Hockey Seen demonstrates how our whole perception and conception of the game alters drastically by association with the distilled dynamism of the drawings, dance, and music.

The project was first performed in Boston in 1972 and in Philadelphia in 1973. In 1980, Hockey Seen was performed in Knokke-Heist, Belgium and shown on Belgian National Television. The Belgian performances are considered to be the work�s �crowning moment�.

Nelson Goodman graduated from Harvard University in 1928. He simultaneously pursued a Ph.D. at Harvard while running a Boston art gallery. Goodman later became one of the world�s leading philosophers on aesthetics and epistemology. Among his many publications, Languages of Art: An Approach to the Theory of Symbols (1976) is often cited as a major contribution to Twentieth Century Aesthetics. While teaching at Harvard, Goodman established Project Zero, an interdisciplinary program linking art and education at the Harvard School of Education. In addition to Hockey Seen, Goodman also created the multimedia presentations Rabbit Run (1973) and Variations (1985).

Katharine Sturgis worked primarily in watercolor throughout her career. Her ink sketches for Hockey Seen capture the energy and fast movement of the game. John C. Adams� electronic score for Hockey Seen was Adams� first commissioned work, made after the composer earned two degrees from Harvard University and moved from the east coast to the San Francisco Bay area. Adams has become one of the most renowned composers of our era. His operas, including Nixon in China and the Death of Klinghoffer, are among the most performed in recent history. Martha Armstrong Gray choreographed the modern dance performance set to Adams� score. She earned a BA from Bennington College and an MFA from New York University. Gray has received numerous awards for her work as a choreographer.

The archive for Hockey Seen was bequeathed to the Haggerty Museum of Art upon Goodman�s death in 1998 and resides at the Museum on the Marquette University campus in Milwaukee.

The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 am-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.. Free parking is available in the Haggerty Museum Parking Lot (enter on 11th St. through Marquette Lot J). For more information call Mary Dornfeld at (414) 288-1669.