“I began to think about music, primarily popular music, its wide reach and direct relationship to the human experience,” Bitner said. “I became intrigued by the notion of physical emptiness coexisting with the memory of what had occurred there.”
The sites explored in her exhibit Static Noise, though some are in ruins, are landmarks that retell the history of punk rock. Legendary venues are paid homage in cinematic scale and honored as platforms with lingering significance. Even estranged from notorious performances, the stages become atmospheric symbols for the clamor of concerts past. Bitner tracks the resonance of raucous nights without nostalgia.
“A simple, straightforward photograph of a place, perhaps not immediately evident for its significance, can introduce an echo of recognition or familiarity, reinforcing a relationship of place, memory and resonance and, perhaps, a faint whisper of sound,” she said. In her photographs, the still, silent image tells its own story and lets visitors imagine, or even hear, what once was.
Static Noise is Bitner’s first West Coast museum exhibition to present a glimpse into her new series, Listen. Exploring influential punk clubs and concert halls from the late 1970s and early 1980s, this exhibition captures the history of an era by focusing on its most seminal venues: New York City’s Electric Lady Studios, where Patti Smith recorded her debut album Horses; Detroit’s Grande Ballroom, where The Stooges and Cramps were regulars; San Antonio’s Randy’s Rodeo where an infamous Sex Pistols concert ended in a riot; and Los Angeles’ Whisky a Go Go and Masque— lodestars in the early L.A. punk scene.
In her Listen series, innocuous sites are not just vestiges; they are vital pieces of the history of rebellious music that defined a generation.
Static Noise will be on view free to the public from Friday, Jan. 27 through Sunday, April 15 at the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach with an opening reception on Jan. 27 from 5pm to 8pm. Admission is $4 for the general public and free for students during normal visiting hours. The opening reception is free and open to the public. The exhibition features 28 photographs. A brochure accompanies it with an essay by muÂsician Lenny Kaye— author, composer, and long-time collaborator and guitarist for the Patti Smith Group who spent many nights performing at CBGB.
More Information
csulb.edu/org/uam
