Peter van Riper (July 8, 1942 – November 18, 1998) was a sound and light environment artist, musician and pioneer of laser art and holography.

Biography

Van Riper was born in Detroit's Inner City, Michigan, the son of a psychoanalyst and an avid record collector. During the 1960s he received a B.A. Far Eastern History, and Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, graduated in Art History at Tokyo University, and took part in Fluxus performances and exhibitions in Japan. He later appeared on Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine #24 ''FluxTellus'', Harvestworks, 1990, as part of an ensemble performing George Maciunas's ''Solo For Lips And Tongue''. He collaborated with Fluxus members during exhibitions and performances, but Van Riper's influences are much wider. He is a true sound artist whose music is often inspired by Far Eastern traditions from Japan or Indonesia. From 1967 to 1970, van Riper was a member of Editions Inc., an

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

, Michigan gallery of holography, animated along laser physicist

Lloyd Cross Lloyd Cross is an American physicist and holographer. As a physicist, Cross' research started in the 1950s, and focused primarily on masers and lasers at Willow Run Laboratories, at the University of Michigan. He first demonstrated maser action ...

and artist Jerry Pethick (1935–2003). In 1970 they organized an exhibition at the Cranbrook Academy, and at the

Finch College Finch College was an undergraduate women's college in Manhattan, New York City. The Finch School opened as a private secondary school for girls in 1900 and became a liberal arts college in 1952. It closed in 1976. Founding Finch was founded in ...

Museum in New York. Both Cross and Pethick co-founded the School of Holography, San Francisco, California. Van Riper exhibited holograms during ''The Nature Of Light: Exploring Unconventional Photographic Techniques'' exhibition, Joyce Goldstein Gallery, New York, 1996, and also created a sound performance during the exhibition opening.

Collaborations

With choreographer Simone Forti
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Van Riper worked with dancer Simone Forti, providing lighting design and live sound accompaniment to her dance performances. An avant garde dancer and choreographer, Forti took part in some of Allan Kaprow's 1960s

happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

and specialized in improvised dancing. While working with her, Van Riper mostly used soprano and sopranino saxophones but also various devices and objects or even tape music. He also moved freely around the stage and dancer. With visual artist Eugènia Balcells Van Riper provided what he calls ''Acobxcvxcvustic Metal Music'' and small percussion works to Barcelona video and

installation artist Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

Eugènia Balcells (born 1943), who settled in New York from 1979 to 1988. For ''TV Weave'', an installation with TV screens first showed at Metrònom gallery, Barcelona, 1985, Peter Van Riper played chiming music from suspended aluminium baseball bats. An excerpt from aluminium baseball bats music can be found on ''The Aerial'' #4 CD. Says Balcells: With performance artist Sha Sha Higby Van Riper collaborated with yet another performance artist: Sha Sha Higby.

Other works

On December 6, 1982, he performed together with

Jackson Mac Low Jackson Mac Low (1922–2004) was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, whi ...

and percussionist Z'EV, during a show called ''Language/Theater: Language/Noise'', at Martinson Hall, Public Theater, New York. That same year he was included in a collective exhibition called ''Young Fluxus'', Artists Space gallery, New York, 1982.

He composed music for ''Seven Days in Space'', a 90' video of NASA space exploration:

List of sound works

* ''The Simple Existence of Any One Thing'', in 'Everson Video 75', Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, 1975 * ''Big Room'' for kalimba, saxophones and plastic hose (w/ Forti choreography), 1975 * ''Red Green'' (w/ Forti choreography), 1975 * ''Plumbing Music'', tape music created for a Simone Forti choreography 'Planet', 1976 * ''Three From Piru'' for a Simone Forti choreography 'Fan Dance', 1975 * ''This'', a 3 channel installation with book, The Kitchen, New York, NY, December 1976 * ''It'' readings for performance, The Kitchen, New York, NY, December 1976 * ''Art on the Beach'' collective exhibition, Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, NY, 1978 * ''Home Base'' for plastic hose named 'molino', moku gyo (Japanese wooden bell) and mbira (African thumb piano), for a Simone Forti choreography, The Kitchen, New york 1979 * ''Indian Cicle'' for sopranino (video performance by Eugènia Balcells), 1981 * ''TV Weave'', for aluminium baseball bats, music for Eugènia Balcells' installation, Metrònom gallery, Barcelona, 1985 * ''Sound/Light'' for Japanese gong to an Eugènia Balcells installation, Metrònom gallery, Barcelona and Experimental Intermedia Foundation, NY, 1985 * ''Shadows'', sound installation w/ Eugènia Balcells, Roulette, NY, 1987 * ''Seeing/Hearing'', 1991 (w/ Forti choreography) * ''Collaboration'', 1991 (w/ Forti choreography)

Recorded music

* ''Sound To Movement. New Music For Saxophones'', LP, 1979 VRBLU, (A-1982-48) * ''Room Space. New Music For Saxophones'', LP, 1981 VRBLU (A-1982-49) * ''Windows to the Sky '', LP * ''Music for Spaces'', LP * ''Indian Circle", cassette, self-release * ''Direct Contact'', cassette, Deep Listening Institute * ''Sustainable Music'', cassette, Deep Listening Institute * ''Music for Spaces'' CD, Van Riper Editions, 1997 * ''Marking Time'' CD-ROM, in collaboration with Jerry Pethick, Kamloops Art Gallery, 1998 Appears on: * George Maciunas ''Solo For Lips And Tongue'', included in Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine #24 ''FluxTellus'', Harvestworks, 1990 * ''Heart'' included in The Aerial #4 cassette & CD, What Next? label, 1991 * ''Acoustic Metal Music'' included in ''Anti-Disc I'', 33rpm flexi disc, Anti-Utopia, 1990 * ''NAP CD Connection'', CD published by New Arts Program, Pennsylvania

References

External links

* Van Ripe
page
at Deep Listening Institute * Eugènia Balcells' we
site
* Holograph

* Kalvos & Damian 2 radi

with Peter Van Riper, November 1997.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Riper, Peter Postmodern artists American contemporary artists American sound artists Laser art American people of Dutch descent American experimental musicians American male composers 1998 deaths 1942 births 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians