MERCE
MERCE is a duo featuring Shelly Burgon and Maria Chavez. At Unsound Festival New York, they will perform with Polish artist Dawid Szczesny.
Multi-instrumentalist Shelley Burgon is best known for her improvisatorial work using harp and laptop. She is a member of the chamber group Ne(x)tworks and the band Stars Like Fleas. She can be heard as a collaborator and guest on many labels including Hometapes, Skirl, Tzadik and Ipecac. She is inspired by Maryanne Amacher and is currently at work on a solo electronic record.
Maria Chavez is an avant-turntablist whose work focuses on solo electric-acoustic sound pieces using a collection of new and broken needles, which she calls “pencils of sound.” Many of her live sound installations explore the paradox of time and the present moment, with many influences stemming from improvisation in contemporary art. In 2008, the Jerome foundation awarded Chavez an Emerging Artist Grant, and in 2009 she received a Van Lier Fellowship. She was an artist in residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the DIA:Beacon Museum and recently performed for Christian Marclay and the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Christian Marclay: FESTIVAL.
