Opening reception for Soon Moon: An Eclipse Show
Soon Moon is a five-day show inspired by the total solar eclipse on April 8th. All works featured in the show were created by UT students, faculty, and staff from all across campus and draw inspiration from the eclipse or outer space. As ephemeral as the eclipse itself, the show will only be up from April 5 – 9.
Join us for an opening celebration on April 5th from 5–8pm, featuring a performance by Billy X Curmano, as well as eclipse glasses decorating stations, and a space-themed potluck. Feel free to bring your own supplies to design your glasses, although we will have plenty available. We ask that any food brought as part of the potluck be very specifically space-themed! Expect moon cakes, Tang, and other snacks.
6pm – Performance by Billy X Curmano
An artist adventurer recalls solar, lunar, planetary alignment, the big river and I-35 at 75.
Hang on! Everything’s in motion. Our planet hurtles around the sun at about 67,000 mph with a 1,000 mph spin. The moon clocks in at about 2,288 mph and aligns precisely for the total solar eclipse. An artist adventurer rides into Austin from Minnesota on I-35 at 75.
Billy X spins tales from a life in performance. His mbira and signature “River Rap” tell the story of a source to gulf Mississippi River Swim. His 40-day juice and water fast in Death Valley ended with the first total lunar eclipse of the 2000’s, a harmonica, and coyotes.
Join in and share your own thoughts on the eclipse in a multi-log moderated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles.
Billy X Curmano is an award winning independent artist and former McKnight Foundation Fellow that fuses the performative with more traditional objects. His work has been exhibited and collected extensively from the III Vienna Graphikbiennale to New York's Museum of Modern Art Library and the Malta National Collection. A 2,367.4-mile Mississippi River Swim from its source to the Gulf of Mexico, 3 days buried alive, a 40-day desert fast and sojourn to the Arctic Circle are among his more eccentric environmental performances.
Amused journalists have dubbed him, “The Court Jester of Southeastern Minnesota” with comparisons to P.T. Barnum, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp and even…a happy otter.