Annson Kenney (1943-1981)
Annson streaked across the art scene from the late 1960s through the 1970s as a writer, composer, artist and performer in many genres and media. He lived in Philadelphia and was a near graduate of Temple University’s Department of Music (1969), where he first staged multi-media works. Annson’s work was conceptual and performative, interdisciplinary and provocative. Caught up in the discourses and practices of the times, he kept language and the body at the forefront of his art. As a musician (he played double bass) and audio/visual/video artist he performed with Philadelphia’s contemporary music ensemble, Relâche and hosted an NPR radio program called NOIZE. He created an array of visual objects, language-based neon works, installations and body work. His work was exhibited in solo shows at Marion Locks Gallery, The Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts and Moore College of the Arts. He died in a car accident on the eve of New Year’s Eve. Annson had extraordinary energy and ideas and would likely have developed a distinctive voice had he lived.
Kenney’s work drew on multiple sources but much of it foregrounds theories and practices associated with literary theory and semiotics, Derridean and Barthesian thought and methodology, Art Language positions, performance theory. His work alludes to Duchamp, Cage, Acconci, Nauman, Joseph Kosuth, Michael Snow and others. He wrote that his intent was to exploring the “complex relation between behavior and language.”
Among other things, for sure.