Sean Patrick Coon

The WorkCommunityChapel Hill, NC

Documenting a night of Warhol, music, and art at the Ackland

In November 2010, the Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill opened Andy Warhol Big Shots, an exhibit of Warhol’s Polaroids, with its Silver Factory Gala. The museum’s director asked the .matrix project to photograph the evening, and after one conversation the job grew to cover the whole night. About ten photographers, filmmakers, and sound engineers from our shows came out. Filmmaker Blake Faucette edited four videos from the night, two of them with me.

Client
Ackland Art Museum, UNC-Chapel Hill
My role
Producer and co-editor, the .matrix project
When
November 12, 2010
Crew
About ten photographers, filmmakers, and sound engineers
Terms
A paid engagement; every crew member was paid
The galaThe Silver Factory Gala, from the museum’s front steps to the stage. Edited with Blake Faucette; music by The Bronzed Chorus.

The ask

By 2010 the .matrix project was becoming known around North Carolina.

A musician I knew, who played in a cover band and had followed the .matrix project, put me in touch with the Ackland’s director. The museum was celebrating Andy Warhol with a fundraising gala for the opening of Big Shots, split between the museum and Top of the Hill on Franklin Street, and she wanted the evening documented.

At first the plan was simple: we would come and take photographs. But we had a great conversation, and the scope grew as we talked. Before long we were covering the guests arriving, the dinner, the music, the artists working live, and the Warhol Polaroids on the gallery walls.

Two crew members in .matrix project shirts beside a long table covered with large black ink drawings. A large-format camera on a tripod in one of the museum’s galleries, with framed portraits and a bust on the walls.
The crewOur crew at work, beside a table of ink drawings and behind a large-format camera in the galleries.

The night

I called on the photographers, filmmakers, and engineers who had worked our shows, and about ten of them came out.

We divided the evening the way we divided a .matrix show. Photographers covered the arrivals, the dinner, and the galleries across both venues. Sound engineers recorded the performances. Filmmakers shot music videos and the artists at work. The night’s artists included the band The Love Language, the spoken word poet CJ Suitt of Sacrificial Poets, who opened the evening, the rock poster silkscreen printer Ron Liberti, and the Chapel Hill artist Louis St. Lewis, known for painting, sculpture, collage, and assemblage.

Unlike our shows, this was a paid engagement. I couldn’t pay a lot, but I could pay everyone a decent rate for their time, which I had never been able to do for the .matrix project.

The Love Language’s singer lit by a single spotlight against a brick wall, with stage lights on a truss above and a silhouetted figure in the foreground.
OnstageThe Love Language, under a single light.
Ron Liberti silkscreen printing behind a table, with a spray can in the foreground and a red ladder behind him. Sean Patrick Coon in a flat cap and .matrix project shirt, working at a piece of equipment in front of a brick wall.
At workRon Liberti silkscreen printing live, and me at work during the gala.

The edit

After the gala, I got into the editing bay with Blake Faucette, my favorite filmmaker to work with.

We cut two videos together. The first tells the story of the whole evening, from the museum’s front steps to the stage. The second is a quieter piece about the exhibit itself: guests moving slowly past walls of Warhol’s Polaroid portraits, set to music by Filthybird. The shooters credited on both were Ismael Abdelkhalek, Ioannis Batsios, Todd Tinkham, and Nic Beery.

Blake also edited two pieces on the night’s artists: CJ Suitt opening the evening with his poem “Malawi,” and an interview with Louis St. Lewis about his biggest influence, Andy Warhol.

The Ackland shared the photographs and videos with its community.

The exhibitAndy Warhol Big Shots at the Ackland. Edited with Blake Faucette; music by Filthybird, courtesy of Holidays for Quince Records.
The artistsCJ Suitt of Sacrificial Poets opening the gala with “Malawi,” and the Chapel Hill artist Louis St. Lewis on Warhol’s influence. Both edited by Blake Faucette.

What I carry

The Ackland gala was the last big night of the .matrix project, and it was a bittersweet one.

I was wrapping up the project around that time. My consulting work through dotmatrix studios was my primary focus, and I couldn’t keep running the shows alongside it. The gala was a good way to end it: the same crew and the same way of working, for a museum.

It’s the kind of work I love most. Bringing a crew of talented people together, giving each of them a clear part, and letting them do what they do best is hard work, and it doesn’t scale. So I keep it for when time allows and the right opportunity comes along.

In their words

“Working with Sean Coon has connected me to a lot of creative talent in Greensboro and Chapel Hill, based on my association with the dotmatrix project. I believe the music community has benefited largely from DMP, from getting their music heard in local venues to having tracks and videos produced and distributed online. My portfolio has grown, as well as my love for performance photography, and I’ve gained considerable experience working under lighting conditions.”

Stephen Charles, photographer, the .matrix project

Want to talk about it? Email me.