Performance: Natural Information Society

Lisa Alvarado is a visual artist and musician who often collaborates with composer, bassist, and improviser Joshua Abrams and the band Natural Information Society. For Counterpublic, the artists traced the waterways that shape the region—both above and below ground—and examined historical maps showing how their courses have shifted across time.

A free-hanging painting inspired by rasquache, a Chicanx aesthetic rooted in the everyday, hangs above the entrance to an industrial garage near the Mississippi River. Inside, viewers encounter structures composed of stitched-together fabrics and transparent pouches filled with water of different colors, referencing the river. Alongside these structures, bells move to produce trembling, chiming sounds. Shapes were cut into existing wooden boards that close off the back of the space, and colored acrylic inserts let sunlight in to create an interaction of light and shadow.

Natural Information Society will perform a durational set in situ amongst Abrams and Alvarado’s sculptural work located at 101 Chouteau.

Joshua Abrams formed Natural Information Society (NIS) in 2010.  With Abrams’ orchestration of traditional & contemporary instrumentation, NIS creates long-form psychedelic environments informed by jazz, minimalism & traditional musics. In April, 2019 eremite records released the groups latest album, Mandatory Reality.

Current & former band members include Lisa Alvarado, Jason Adasiewicz, Mikel Avery, Ben Boye, Hamid Drake, Ben Lamar Gay, Emmett Kelly, Norberto Lobo, Artur Majewski, Nick Mazzarella, Jeff Parker, Frank Rosaly, Jason Stein, Kuba Suchar, Nori Tanaka & Chad Taylor. In 2015, Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas collaborated on Automaginary (Drag City).