Part origin story, part healing spell. Decrepit psychedelia with a powerdrone score. Memory As A Rock Out Of Reach is a duet performance in which Erika M. Anderson (EMA) and visual artist Tabitha Nikolai use video game technologies to build out the psycho-sexual inner world of a girl-child in the ’80s. Soundtracked by modular synth and guitar, a narrator searches for her shape amid commercial detritus, degraded 3D scans, and a Polly Pocket apocalypse.
Erika M. Anderson is an artist and musician who has been active in the West Coast DIY and experimental scene for over two decades. She performs under her initials as EMA and has toured extensively, playing internationally in warehouses, sold-out arenas and everywhere in between. In 2011 she released her critically-acclaimed solo debut, Past Life Martyred Saints, which has been included on the “Best Of The Decade” lists from Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Rolling Stone. Her albums are frequently self-produced, with a signature style that borrows from noise, folk, and memories of popular music. While Anderson’s music has brought her to prestigious music festivals, including Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Roskilde, her multimedia performances have taken place in museums such as PS1 MoMA, The New Museum, and The Barbican Centre in London. She has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and many others. NPR called her indie music’s “greatest worldbuilder.” Originally from South Dakota, Anderson now lives in Portland, Oregon, where she runs a recording studio.
Tabitha Nikolai is a visual artist and designer who uses video games, installation, and writing to study life under the visceral and disorienting onslaught of mass virtuality. Currently based in Portland, she grew up in Utah, and is forever influenced by her experiences there. Her work orbits themes of gender, isolation, futurism, and fantasy, often with a dark and humorous twist. With a long history of running DIY spaces, Nikolai believes deeply in the lifesaving power of community-organized scenes. Her work has been shown internationally at venues including the Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway; Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA; and apexart, New York, NY. Nikolai’s video games have been covered by The New York Times, VICE, and Art in America, and in academic outlets including the Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds.
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