THE CHOICE WE FACE
Keil Borrman
helper Welcomes “The Choice We Face,” a Unique Audio/Visual Exploration by Keil Borrman
A Collaboration with Some of New York’s Leading Audio Designers: DeVORE Fidelity, Grado Labs, Rogers High Fidelity and VPI Industries
April 19, Brooklyn, NY – helper, a studio and project space at 495 Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, is proud to host to a new work by Brooklyn-based artist, Keil Borrman. “The Choice We Face,” is a literal union of the visual and the aural, where paintings and music do more than simply complement each other within their unique disciplines, they merge into one, new experience for the viewer/listener.
Borrman’s large scale works are integrated into the music reproduction process, turning helper into one tuned music listening room. Using his paintings as baffles, he highlights the incredible sonic qualities of high fidelity audio equipment from some of the New York metro area’s most celebrated designers and builders: DeVORE Fidelity, Grado Labs, Rogers High Fidelity and VPI Industries. Together, the paintings and the audio equipment functioning as one entity, Borrman is able to create a room that expands the way both artistic disciplines are experienced.
“Much of my work is about the blurring of lines, about breaking down arbitrary barriers we use to comfortably categorize things like painting and music,” said Borrman. “We like to create rigid categories because it makes it easier for us to know which sense, set of experiences and memories we should be focusing on, but life really takes place in the middle, in the blur.”
“The Choice We Face” is also a celebration of the enduring impact the New York area has had on the history of recorded music. While the region’s contribution of musicians, singers, bands and composers is well-known and hailed, what is frequently lost in the shadows is the area’s rich history of designing, producing and building the equipment that makes listening to recorded music possible.
“To me the art in music isn’t just found in the notes on the pages, it’s in the experience of listening. The reality is that most music gets experienced through recordings, but music has become so easily consumable that we’ve lost sight of the care that goes into bringing those recordings to life,” continues Borrman. “I’m incredibly grateful and fortunate to have these legendary collaborators from right here in and around New York. I hope that this might help a person see the artistic care and process that goes into creating this equipment, so that we can move past just seeing a box of electronics.”
About Keil Borrman
Keil Borrman lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn. His work, including projects involving painting & drawing, sculpture, food and performance, has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His recent project with Osmos Address, curated by Jovana Stokic, was named as one of Alex Jovanovich’s “Best of 2013” onArtforum.com. Beyond working toward a better stereo at home Borrman strives to develop projects that can, quantifiably, have a positive affect on the work of his collaborators.
About DeVORE Fidelity
Founded by president and chief designer John DeVore in 2000, DeVORE FIDELITY LTD has gone on to receive numerous awards and acclaim for every one of its products, and a dozen years later John continues to push the state-of-the-art in speaker design with new models like the Orangutan O/96 shown here. John brings his lifelong experience as a musician, 30 years of designing speakers and 25 years of Hi-Fi industry experience to his company, and entered the HiFi scene with a bang, as the Stereophile Newsletter put it in 2005, "DeVore Fidelity is a young company, but over the last half decade, its products have pulled down critical kudos and consumer raves that more established companies would kill for." All DeVORE FIDELITY speakers, from the gibbons to the Orangutans and the Silverback Reference, share the same essential elements of unified design evolution, where all elements of the speaker (the cabinet, drivers and crossovers) are designed gradually in concert with one another and easy drivability, which allows partnering amplifiers to perform and sound their best. These elements combined with exquisite cabinets hand crafted in their own Brooklyn New York workshop, DeVORE FIDELITY speakers offer a unique way to get the most out of the music in your collection.
About Grado Labs
Grado, family owned and located in Brooklyn since 1953, has been the leader in design engineering for the high-end audio and recording industries. Grado is famous for their remarkable headphone and phono cartridge designs and hold over 48 patents. Company founder, Joseph Grado is credited as the inventor of the stereo moving coil phono cartridge. He is responsible for more innovations in phono cartridge design than any other person in our lifetime and was inducted into the Audio Hall of Fame in 1982. Time honored manufacturing know how and painstaking attention to design detail allows previously unobtained levels of pitch control, harmonic accuracy and bass quality to be achieved. All Grado headphones and cartridges are hand made to Grado's full performance specifications... nothing leaves the factory unless it sounds pure Grado.
About Rogers High Fidelity
Rogers High Fidelity is located in the heart of the Hudson Valley in Warwick, NY. We specialize in designing and manufacturing high-performance audio products. Our products are completely made in the USA with the finest components, and feature a lifetime transferable warranty. President and Chief designer Mr. Roger Gibboni takes his 30 years in aerospace communications design and creates visionary solutions for true audio reproduction. Company URL:http://www.rogerhighfidelity.com
About VPI Industries
Based in Cliffwood, New Jersey, VPI Industries is one of the leading manufacturers of high-end vinyl playback systems and record cleaning machines in the world with dealers in over 40 countries. Co-founded by Harry and Sheila Weisfeld in 1978, VPI Industries has remained as a family-run business for more than thirty-five years withtheir son, Mathew Weisfeld recently becoming President. The recipients of more than 37 industry awards including ‘Product of the Year’ for their best-selling TNT, HRX, and Classic turntables, VPI has received universal acclaim from both the enthusiast and mainstream press for their relentless pursuit of technical excellence and support for music education and future engineers in America’s schools.
