Extended Play

featuring Band Practice

January 18 – March 2, 2019

REAL TINSEL is pleased to announce the debut exhibition of objects from the Milwaukee-based design collective, Band Practice. The collective was formed in 2018 with founding members: Austin Boechler, Ray Chi, Janelle Gramling, Matthew Gramling, Rudy Medina, and Tim Stoelting.

Band Practice applies the structure and system of a musical band to the production of ambiguously functional sculptural objects. The analogy is pushed in several ways — how ‘practices’ are held, ideas are formed, objects are made and how completed works are promoted. As with a musical band, Band Practice members share a common vision, but bring specific talents to the table. The goal is to move beyond individual egos and abilities as a way to produce objects that are as surprising to create as they are to behold.

Following the lead of the Surrealist parlor game, Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse), Band Practice’s debut album, Extended Play, consists of objects that have evolved through successive transformations in the hands of individual band members. Objects begin as ambiguous forms that are ripe with possibility but have no prescribed design direction. The metamorphic process encourages open and playful experimentation. Works are handed-off without ego or attachment and the only expectation is that when the object returns two weeks later, it surprises, perplexes and delights the group.