Alex Kahn
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Alex Kahn is an American visual/performance artist and co-founder of the arts ensemble Processional Arts Workshop. He is most widely known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade each year.


Pageant puppetry and processional art

In 1998, Kahn and his partner, Sophia Michahelles, brought together an ensemble of artists, puppeteers, theatrical technicians, and performers to design the annual performances that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade. Originally named "Superior Concept Monsters", the group was incorporated as a non-profit in 2005 and renamed Processional Arts Workshop with a mission to create site-specific community-built processions, parades, and other open-space performances. These works are often developed through open community workshops that bring hundreds of volunteers together to build, rehearse, and ultimately perform cyclical pieces specifically for the parade. The performances typically incorporate elements of puppetry, sound, dance, costume/mask, lighting/projection and mobile architecture, an amalgam of mediums Kahn dubbed "processional art". In addition to leading New York's Village Halloween Parade each year, Kahn's creations have appeared in venues nationally and internationally. His work, Metamorphosis, involving 20' tall pupating luna moths, officially opened the 2000 Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre. In 2002, he and Michahelles initiated a midsummer pageant project in the Italian Alps village of Morinesio, drawing on local folklore and oral history to create a unique site-specific pageant. Inspired by the success of the now-annual tradition, they have seeded similar projects in diverse locales in Ukraine, Turkey, Italy, Texas, New York, and elsewhere. In 2006, Kahn was awarded a
Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
to
Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...
, to study the artistic and cultural structures behind Caribbean Carnival and Trinidadian "Mas'", or costumed procession. More recent PAW works have included major commissions for Socrates Sculpture Park the NY Architectural League's Beaux Arts Ball, the PEN World Voices Festival, Houston's Buffalo Bayou Park,"Houston Chronicle (6/2/2015) – Want to make art for Buffalo Bayou Park's big party?
/ref> the Grand Opening of the
High Line The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway, and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Op ...
over Penn Rail Yards.


Other works

Kahn has maintained an independent practice as a theatrical designer, printmaker, installation artist, and teacher. His interdisciplinary approach was strongly influenced by his experience as technical director of the Kitchen Performance Center during the 1990s. During this time he created lighting, objects, and effects for performance artists including John Jesurun ("Chang in a Void Moon"), Mikel Rouse ("Failing Kansas"), Roseanne Spradlin,
Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...
, Pauline Oliveros, and David Hykes. Kahn trained as a master printer under Robert Blackburn (artist) and chaired the Printmaking Department at Maine College of Art from 2000 to 2004. Hi
Spam Cantos
a retooling of spam messages generated by Baysean algorithms into a series of letterpress poems, appeared at the Maine Institute of Contemporary Art in 2008. In 2016, Kahn performed in the role of "choir-master" in "The Visitors" a video-work by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, which has appeared at major museums around the world. His ongoing project, a fictional traveling museum called the Archive of the Synapse, has been exhibited nationally. ''San Francisco Chronicle'' art critic Kenneth Baker described the work as follows:


References

* "The Greatest Free Show on Earth: Carnival from Trinidad to Brazil, Cape Town to New Orleans" Claire Tancons. From exhibition catalogue for "Prospect 1: New Orleans" (PictureBox, 2008) * ''Puppetry International: Mega-Puppets Issue'' (Fall/Winter 2007-8) – "Greenwich Village Halloween" article by Rolande DuPree. * ''Trinidad Guardian'' (4/25/06) – “Puppeteers Find That Cultural Link” by Kayode James * ''La Guida'' (6/13/03) – “I Puppazzi gigante di Morinesio” by Massimiliano Cavallo * ''Middletown Times Herald-Record'' (2/23/03) – “It Takes a Community to Build a Puppet” by Deborah J. Botti * ''Harvard Magazine'' (Jan/Feb 03) – “Community Puppeteer” by Ellenor J. Honig * ''Art New England'' (Feb/March 2) – “Light Upon Light: Towers of Remembrance” by Chris Thompson * ''Portland Phoenix'' (10/26/00) – “Gathering Intelligence” by Chris Thompson * ''Teokikixtli - Mexican Review of Puppet Arts'' (July 1) – ”The Mysterious Life of Giant Puppets” by Sophia Michahelles * ''New York Times'' (11/1/ 00) – “Night of the Living Dot-Com” by Shaila Dewan * ''NyTeknik'' (11/00) – “Halloween årets rysare” by Jan Aschan. Swedish technical journal – feature article on puppetry works * ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (8/19/00) – “Artists Create Show at Refusalon’s ‘1:1’ ” review by Kenneth Baker * ''Chronogram'' (September 00) – “Pulling Strings: Hudson Valley Puppetry Renaissance” by Pauline Uchmanowicz * ''New York Times'' (11/1/98) – photo from performance work


External links


Official website for Processional Arts Workshop

Video compilation of PAW works

Official website for Archive of the Synapse

Official website for New York's Village Halloween Parade

WFUV Radio "Cityscape": documentary feature on Superior Concept Monsters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Alex Living people American artists Jewish American artists Artists from New York (state) American puppeteers Puppet designers 21st-century American Jews Year of birth missing (living people)