Vijay Masharani, Studies in Unlikeability
25 November 2022, 7 pm
Heinrich-Heine-Haus, Am Ochsenmarkt 1, 21335 Lüneburg

Andrea Solstad, Talking Machine
26 November 2022, 2 pm 
Autowerkstatt In Sachen Auto, Arenskule 5, 21339 Lüneburg

Vijay Masharani's lecture, Studies in Unlikeability is interspersed with snippets from other speakers: a lullaby stitched together from a video greeting recorded by the artist’s father during the 2020 California wildfires; the contrapunto of two contrasting monologues recorded on public transport; a short segment of an extemporaneous answer by Ruth Wilson Gilmore during a Zoom “q + a"... He uses eliminations, loops, and subtle sonic transformations to charge the potential of these loaded sources.

In parking lots and an auto shop in Lüneburg, Andrea Solstad’s lecture Talking Machine addresses an automotive audience in a chorus of voices. Birds chirp like a car alarm. YouTubers accurately imitate the sound of racing engines using an aluminum can (a viral video update to kid car play). Employing these and a variety of other technical means, she attempts to connect with internal combustion engines. They are the gasoline-powered masses threatened with replacement, export, and recycling.

Andrea Solstad is a research-based artist and sculptor who lives and works in New York. She works as an educator, as well as collaborating with a variety of artists and performers as a fabricator and technician. Her work has recently been presented in exhibitions at Sculpture Center, Queens; Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens; and Callicoon Gallery, New York. 

Vijay Masharani is an artist based in New York. He received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017 and his MA in Race, Ethnicity, Postcolonial Studies at University College London in 2022, where his research centered on the works of W. E. B. Du Bois. Select solo and two-person exhibitions include Triage at Clima, Milan; #38: Gas, Honey with Raza Kazmi at Museum Gallery, New York; and his work has also been shown at Helena Anrather, New York; Shoot the Lobster LA; and Interstate Projects, New York. His writing has appeared Artforum, Momus, BOMB and The Brookyn Rail.

The Center for Experimental Lectures is an artist’s project and based in New York that engages with the public lecture as form. Co-organized by Gordon Hall and Zoey Lubitz, the CEL has commissioned 46 new lectures since 2011 through the support of venues such as Artists Space, Interstate Projects, Kunsthaus Glarus, MoMA PS1, Montez Press Radio, RISD, The Shandaken Project, Wendy’s Subway, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in conjunction with the 2014 Whitney Biennial. An archive including transcripts and video documentation of past events can be found at experimentallectures.org.

The annual program at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V. is funded by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg and Hansestadt Lüneburg. The educational program at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V. is funded by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. The project in collaboration with the Center for Experimental Lectures is made possible with support by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony and Stiftung Niedersachsen.