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About Ken Montgomery & The Ministry of Lamination

What is it about lamination that turns an ordinary scrap of paper into something official, something important, even something mysterious?   Ken Montgomery -- Sound Art pioneer, hero of the 1980's Lower East Side arts scene, recording artist, and "noisician" -- has devoted years to exploring these questions. The result is the Ministry of Lamination.   


Since the early 1980s, via Mail Art and Cassette Culture Networking, Ken Montgomery has found novel ways to work with sound: from performances in darkness to octophonic audio installations to enhancing the sounds of machinery.   Montgomery has performed at The Whitney Museum, Roulette, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, The Kitchen, and P.S. 122.   Among other honors, Montgomery was the recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship in 2003, and has been awarded residencies at the SpritzenHaus in Hamburg, Germany, and Harvestworks Studio P.A.S.S. in New York City.

The Ministry of Lamination grew from Montgomery's work as the founder of Generator, the world-famous Lower East Side store/gallery/network/ that served as a hub for Sound Art experimentation. To pay the bills at Generator, Montgomery worked in a photo lab where laminating services were provided. Each day he took discarded photographs out of the trash, cut them up, and laminated them. "I decided Generator should have a self-service lamination station for the public to experiment and play with," Montgomery says. "People often associate lamination with commonplace, practical objects such as identification cards, menus or driver's licenses. Most people carry a laminated card with them all the time. But when people have the chance to experiment with making their own laminations, the results are inspiring."

Rarely does the art public have the opportunity to witness and experience the pioneers of influential art movements performing the acts which brought them their initial and continuing recognition. Fortunately, you can now see Montgomery laminate live in New York City at the PLP Gallery.

Learn more about Ken Montgomery at his website, www.MinistryofLamination.com

genkenmontgomery@generatorsoundart.org
or
egnekn@ministryoflamination.com

PLP Gallery
43 Eighth Avenue (between Jane & Horatio St.)
New York, NY 10014
212 633-1333
A.T.M.O.T.W. Art is Throwing Money Out The Window

Generator Sound Art
Ministry of Lamination
A.T.M.O.T.W. Art is Throwing Money Out The Window