In October 2015, Yutaka Sone wrote the poem “Last Night of the Stone Age.” The poem describes a time when small groups of people lived in caves, and language is still developing along the transition of these early hunting and gathering cultures. Early signs of the modern bronze age are in the air, but for now they just keep the fire of their daily festival alive.
In the last years, Sone and his artist friends from over the world have been engaged in performances in search of these anonymous voices from the past. Sometimes political, sometimes in a more social context and sometimes just fun amonhgst friends, this series of mostly unprogrammed events has led to the project “Last Night of the Stone Age” a series of vinyl records, live-performances and an ambitious exhibiton held at Tommy Simoens, Antwerp.
In the run-up to the Okayama Art Summit 2022, at the legendary live house Pepperland, Yutaka Sone and Shun Owada made a series of drum and electronic sound recordings, using a voice sample of Rirkrit Tiravanija saying “do we dream under the same sky”. On the drums, Sone aimed for a sound that went against all rhythms, in an experience that felt to him like “a long and boring day in the quarry”. Sone uses only one drumstick, combined with what he calls a “shaky base drum”. The result, however, is a surprisingly engaging performance by Sone and Owada.
For DO WE DREAM UNDER THE SAME SKY / STREETNAMES, Yutaka Sone and Rirkrit Tiravanija conducted an improvised dialogue with ‘untitled band’ (Shun Owada and friends). Each artist is given a street name in turn, often from their shared past. During the performance, Sone and Tiravanija have to dig deeper and deeper into their memories, sometimes coming up with street names that are harder for the other artist to remember, or sometimes with surprised cheers when an unexpected street name pops up. For listeners, the underlying anecdotal sources are palpable, but the actual history remains known only to the performers.
Peter Adjaye is a conceptual sound artist, specialising in cross-disciplinary collaborations. He is a musicologist, composer, DJ-producer and musician. He is known for his project MusicforArchitecture, creating soundscapes that integrate the history and cultural inluences of architectural structures. This unique set of skills and vast experience have enabled him to work closely with his brother, Sir David Adjaye OBE, for over 15 years. This work has recently culminated in the publication, ‘Dialogues’ on MusicforArchitecture Records in association with Vinyl Factory Records. For the exhibiton he created a new soundscape titled The ritual of awakening (Last Night of the Stone Age Sessions part III)
“The conveying of information is about the transmission of sound. It’s dynamic and ever-evolving: we’re constantly discovering new perspectives and truths…”
For Last Night of the Stone Age, Adjaye went to several Antwerp based record stores, and bought an eclectic set of vinyls, from African beat samples to rare freejazz and even some local flemish “kleinkunst” recordings. In previous sessions with this group of artists he also proved to be an engaging spoken word performer.
Andrew Pierre Hart has a long history working in music, and started painting later in his career.
His work explores the symbiotic relationship between painting and sound through ongoing rhythmic research and play between improvised and spontaneous generative processes. Deeply influenced by music, Hart’s work is a renegotiation of the visual language and legacies of Western abstraction, probing connections between the phenomena, language and representation of sound in painting. For Last Night of the Stone Age at Teddy Picker, Hart gathered a bunch of musical toys and some small Korg synthesizers. His painting Last Night of the Stone Age Sessions part II, was painted especially for the exhibition, ands took its inspiration from a first session earlier this year.
The 23 year old revelation David Ngyah is a Belgian soul and blues inspired singer and musician. He is no stranger to the Belgian hip-hop scene. Inspired by the musical vibe of, among others, D’Angelo, James Brown, Otis Redding and Michael Jackson, he started making music when he was 17. David wrote his first hit Elusive at 19 years, together with the Belgian band Blackwave. Ngyah has been playing the drums since chilldhood and his percussion proved to be one of the thriving forces in Last Night of the Stone Age.
Japanese artist and noise musician Shun Owada creates electroacoustic works and installations with an interest in a relationship between “anonymous” sound and the human body as a perceptive organism. His sculptural work in this exhibition is investigating the difference in sound when dripping citric acid on 350 million years old Japanese limestone and 450 million year old Belgian limestone.
Japanese artist Yutaka Sone fuses art with nature, sport, performance, and entertainment. His work defies easy categorization. Not only can it not be reduced to a single medium – Sone’s work encompasses sculpture, drawings, performance, and video – it is also difficult to locate culturally. Rather than relating to a specific culture, the work tends to address culture at large. Sone, who now lives and works mainly in Antwerp, Washinoyama and Chong Wu, has travelled extensively. His experience of the places he has seen and the people he has met, his aim to unearth common ground between extremely diverse groups informs his work. New sculptures made by his carving studio at the foot of Washinoyama mountain, and made of the local grey stone will be featured in the exhibition Last Night of the Stone Age at Tommy Simoens.
Rirkrit Tiravanija has always been interested in countercultures that have nourished his work. Punk, the 1970s iconic antiestablishment movement, was a response to the era’s various artistic, economic, and social crisis. It reflects a total rejection of conventional circuits and is notable for allowing anyone and everyone to come on stage to express themselves regardless of talent. Inspired by this culture of amateurism and contention, Rirkrit Tiravanija resorts to recurrent provocation in experimental situations, leaving viewers to interact freely with his installations and, thus, shift their status from visitor to participant. “ For me, the core of my work lies in the very construction. Without interaction or activation, it doesn’t exist.” Tiravanija’s monumental marble stage untitled 2015 (run like hell) is at the centre of the exhibition “Last Night of the Stone Age”.