Stray Dog Hydrophobia
Live Musical Performance and Film Installation

Presented by LACMA Art + Technology

Patty Chang and David Kelley’s live musical performance and monumental four-screen film installation, Stray Dog Hydrophobia, will take place outdoors beside LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries in the Smidt Family Plaza for one night only on Thursday, November 6 at 7 p.m.

Chang and Kelley filmed in and off the coast of Jamaica, in London, Southampton, and Oxford, England. Surrounded by four projections, a live chorus of vocalists, percussionists, and horn players will synchronously perform a composition for Stray Dog Hydrophobia amongst the audience. The one-hour-long event weaves live performance and instrumentation with the diegetic recordings in the film.

Immersed in four surrounding projections, audiences will experience a rare fusion of live music, narration, and film. The performance—featuring composer Yasna Yamaoka Vismale’s score of ethereal vocals, Afro-Jamaican drum rhythms, free jazz, West African influences, and Maroon music—will be brought to life by a chorus of musicians and dramatic narrators. Together, they resist violent histories and present challenges while carrying a note of hope for the ocean’s future.