ARTS Fullman is big on strings > BY A L E X A N D E R VARTY rtists often go to great lengths to make an impact, but few take that as literally as Seattle resident Ellen Fullman. Her Long Stringed Instrument spans 16 metres from end to end and encompasses an array of 100 strings, tuned to a series of mathematically determined pitches. As much a sculptural installation as a device for generating sound, it makes a massive statement with its mere presence— and its sonic impact is just as huge. In skilled hands, synthesizers might be able to approach the complexity of the LSI's sound, which starts with thunderous fundamentals and rises all the way to clouds of shimmering overtones—a metaphorical description that echoes Fullman's own view of her art. At heart, she explains in a telephone interview from Washington state, she hopes to make music that is as elemental as the weather. "It's really kind of spellbinding when it works," she says. "It happened at a recent Open Space concert when I was performing solo. The entire audience gasped, you know. It was like everyone was going there with me on a multidimensional level." Although self-taught as a musician, the Memphisborn former art student bases her work in an ardent and ongoing exploration of the physics of sound; she says there's a lot of math involved in what she does. Yet, as befits a performer who has been profoundly influenced by the blues greats she was privileged to hear in her youth, when it comes time to perform, the clinical air of the laboratory gives way to a landscape of sensual pleasures and heightened emotion. "I'm not trying to make something intentionally heart-wrenching," she comments, "It's just that when I find something really interesting it always has some sort of emotional resonance." Her music holds other resonances, too. While the design of the LSI reflects Fullman's intellectual interest in different pitch relationships, playing it is very much a tactile experience. Before performing, Fullman coats her fingers with powdered rosin. Then, using her hands as a violinist might use a bow, she slides them along her instrument's length, sometimes drawing a single drone out of a single wire, elsewhere eliciting complex, ever-shifting chords from multiple strings. In addition to giving her split-second, handson control over the LSI's sound, this technique turns each performance into what looks very much like a walking meditation. A w e all share the p r o b l e m , the solutions a r e CfCl^8k.crncl NOW A Headlines Theatre Production Directed and Joked by ^ | f l SURREY Nov 17.20 Dec 1 4 and 7 - 11 at 8pm and 2 3 - 2 7 at 8pm 2 fori Preview Nov 16 Audience-Interactive 1 Tickets $15+ $1.45 servicefeeat the Box Office: 604.50L5S66 Of online; www.Qrts.svrrey.co Tickets $15 Box Office: 604.8710508 s of the Indo^Canadian (ommunity w ssr szsT < | » $M VANCOUVER "*WS"BSSS fli Surrey Arts Centre Studio Theatre & 13750 >88th Ave, Surrey (at King George Hwy) Ross Street Temple Community Annex 8000 Ross St, Vancouver (at E 64th Ave off SE Marine Or) RwwrwrtKHis SwMnmwwM Tfib&imtetoe, presents mssms IN VANCOUVER A showcase of West Coast contemporary dance Ellen Fullman plays a 16-metre-long stringed instrument with tones that are part mathematics, part emotion. "I move at a tai chi-like pace, but that's not for stylistic reasons," she says. "Basically, I move at the speed that lets the strings speak most clearly. "It's kind of a gliding back and forth," she adds. "After all these years of doing it, it looks like I'm floating along on wheels or something. It's weird." Interested parties can view this phenomenon—and hear Fullman's beautiful, if utterly unconventional, music—at the Western Front on Friday (November 18). Also on the bill will be a work that Tokyo-based, Canadian-born composer Brett Larner has scored for seven guitars, and a Larner/Fullman collaboration for three kotos and the LSI. Even Fullman finds it difficult to explain how that piece will play out; apparently the Japanese zithers need to be pitched to three similar but not identical tunings. It's safe to say, however, that it'll sound like nothing we've heard before. ^ Peter Bingham & Wen Wei Wang Wed 8pm/5at 9pm YOU CAN'] TAKEJ1 W TH YOU C0.ERASGA Thurs7pm/Fri7pm Tf MovEnt, Emily Molnar Dance, The Holy Body Tattoo Thurs9pm/Sat7pm A farcical comedy by Dancers Dancing, Karen Jamieson & Byron Chief-Moon, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg Fri gpm/Sat 2pm Joe Ink Moss Hart George S. Kaufman and with A N T O N Y H O L L A N D and K A T H R Y N S H A W and the senior students of Studio 58 A Directed by R O B E R T M C Q U E E N Sun 2pm • Composer/Musical Director M A R E K N O R M A N Costume Design M A R A GOTTLER Set Design P A M J O H N S O N Lighting Design SHARON HUIZINGA Festival Box Office 604.257.0366 www.festivalboxoffice.com TWOTHOUSANDANOriVE November 24 - December 11 8pm Tue - Sat $9 Matinees 3pm Sat & Sun except Nov 26 $9 Previews on Nov 24 & 25 Studio 58's 40th Anniversary production o t U u l O Do LangaraCollege, 100West49thAvenue,Vancouver L A N G A R A www.langara.bc.ca/studio58 C O L L E G E WESTERN FRONT NEW MUSIC PRESENTS Wednesday-Sunday November 16-20 Scotiabank Dance Centre • • • 677 Davie Street (at Granville), Vancouver • ••• ••• M M • Single tickets $24/$i8 Book for more shows and save! For a full performance schedule go to BOX OFFICE 604.257.0366 www.thedancecentre.ca or call 6046066400 tickets online www.fe$tivalboxoffke,com M Canadian Heritage Patrimoine canadien BRITISH COLUMBIA <£> v ARTS COUNCIL strum 74 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 17 - 2 4 / 2 0 0 5 m • • m m • • m • • a m m m ••• • a T H E • •• • •• • • • • a a F U T ••• B B B B a a a aaa U • •• •••• aa a a • R E • • • m • • • •••• O F MM a M BB • •• B a • a • a a aaa a M • • • • a M * • • • a aaaa THE S T R I N G E D I N S T R U H ENT aaa" Four shows $65/$so • Five shows $75/$55 FESTIVAL m • aaa • • • aa m aa a a • a a Two shows $4o/$30 • Three shows $55/$40 • aaa