THE SCHEHERAZADE PROJECT
Performance / Video Series, 2016-17
Commissioned by a Sphinx Organization MPower Artist Grant in collaboration with Jannina Norpoth, PUBLIQuartet, and The Hollands and sponsored by MAC Cosmetics and DAP. Performed at National Sawdust as part of the NY Philharmonic Biennial and the NY Electroacoustic Music Festival, Shown in SAWCC's 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Archival Alchemy, at Abrons Arts Center curated by Saisha Grayson, and shown as part of ZAZ10TS.
The Scheherazade Project (TSP) takes its inspiration from the feminist icon Scheherazade, who uses well-known folklore to save her own life as well as the lives of thousands of women from a virgin-killing king in the classical Persian story One Thousand and One Nights. Reimagined through a contemporary Western lens, TSP positions Scheherazade as the video screen, enchanting the disillusioned dictator with her media stories and slowly immersing him into the screen world where reality and fiction become indiscernible. The video from the performance, ‘The King’s Demise’ shown below represents the dance of the King being subsumed into the screen world. Khoshbin created all video and performance, while PUBLIQuartet and The Hollands integrated electronic and acoustic musical genres via original songs and improvisations that pay homage to Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic poem Scheherazade.
