SPACE

🪩 🐍

Up now in our window gallery is 𝙏𝙮𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙈𝙘𝙋𝙝𝙚𝙚’s installation, 𝘼 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚. Rendered in the flat, saturated palette of mid-century field guide illustration, 𝘼 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚 catalogs the botany of altered states, each specimen labeled with the deadpan authority of a scientific plate, repositioning their clinical illustrations as tangible forms, portals between observation and hallucination.

𝙏𝙮𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙈𝙘𝙋𝙝𝙚𝙚’s practice explores the transient potential of altered states—induced by psychedelics, meditation, or other means—as a distinct form of knowing. Working across drawing, photography, video, and sculpture, he captures the ephemeral nature of perception, engaging myth-making as both method and subject: transmuting private experiences into shared symbols, and attempting to reveal what ordinary consciousness leaves unseen.

𝘼 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚 is exhibiting through October 26. Be on the lookout when traversing the sidewalk outside our venue at 538 Congress Street.

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𝘼 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚
Sep 4–Oct 26
SPACE Window Gallery
Photo documentation by Art Archival | Joel Tsui

The Santa Fe-based country folk-rock artist 𝙀𝙨𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚 returns to SPACE this Friday, playing with Nashville’s Americana-folk artist 𝙀𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙃𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 and Baltimore’s slowcore sensation 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙎𝙪𝙧. Been a blurry few weeks, and we’re in the mood for this kind of night. Here’s a spin through some clips of theirs, and tickets are for sale now at SPACE538.ORG

𝙀𝙨𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚 was on a long solo drive when she started writing the opening title track of 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵, her stunning fifth album. At first, the words seemed almost like a joke, something to keep herself amused as the miles passed. “I want a puppy, but I don’t want a mess. I want to know where I’m going without GPS,” she sang from behind the wheel. Soon, the idea snowballed into a list of desires that spanned existential, spiritual, and mundane; romantic to platonic to familial; at once wildly ambitious yet piercingly relatable; all set to a catchy melody that blends her pop instincts with country storytelling and the raw immediacy of a basement punk show. In other words, she was on her way to another classic 𝙀𝙨𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚 song.

2 • Esther Rose - “New Bad” (𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵, 2025)
3 • Esther Rose - “Had To” (𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵, 2025)
4 • Emily Hines - “All of Our Friends” (𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴)
5 • Small Sur - “A Clean Patch of Ground” (𝘈𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘮)
6 • Esther Rose - “Chet Baker” (𝘚𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘶𝘯)
7 • Esther Rose - “How Many Times” (𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴)
8 • Esther Rose - “Spider” (𝘚𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘶𝘯)

September 18 • Fri 8 pm, doors at 7:30
Esther Rose with Emily Hines and Small Sur
$22 advance, $25 day of show • $2 off for SPACE members

A SPACE fave, the Burlington, VT-based indie folk-rock songwriter 𝙇𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙 returns in December with a new album, 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘺, with support from Toronto songwriter 𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖 𝙉𝙞𝙚𝙢𝙞. Tickets are on sale now at SPACE538.ORG.

“Sometimes life gets so dark, it starts to feel like a bad trip,” at least that’s how 𝙇𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙 reflects on the seasons that led to the making of her new record, 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘺. Seabird’s third record in as many years for Lame-O Records deals in mortality and reverence for the innately human, piecing her troubadour-ish folk to a grungy rock sentimentality. Though born from a period of reckoning and renewal, 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙 orients 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘺 around a holistic realism that buoys the spirit, with loose, earthy arrangements that meet intensity and depth with both twangy spaciousness and searing drive.

Across the record’s nine tracks, the Vermont-based singer and songwriter orbits around the concept of “lightspheres,” a catalysing presence or force that visits time and time again and shifts stories, feelings and trajectories. “A lightsphere can be so many things” says 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙, “an actual light like a star, the sun, a UFO; headlights, a flashlight in the night; but also life, living things, people, relationships.”

Weaving the esoteric with hard, unadulterated truths, 𝙇𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙‘s songwriting has evolved away from the diaristic of 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 and 𝘈𝘭𝘢𝘴, to a more observational approach. On 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴, her perspective is novelistic and alchemical, channeling memories, events and characters from her life into a collection of songs forged from the hard-fought journey of self actualization, and the awareness of how precious and fleeting it all really is.

December 9 • Wed 7:30 pm, doors at 7
Lily Seabird and Eliza Niemi
$15 advance, $18 day of show • $2 off for SPACE members

🎞️ Where’d the zombie come from, anyway? Join SPACE and Indigo Arts Alliance on October 5 for 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙕𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚, a documentary film by Maya Annik Bedward that digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. A New York Times Critic’s pick, 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙕𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚 tickets are available at SPACE538.ORG

Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power. A symbol of stolen agency was recast as an object of fear, while Black spiritual traditions were distorted, sensationalized, and erased.

Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood, reconsidering iconic films like 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘡𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘦, 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘰𝘸 alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown.

Part cultural reckoning, part horror remix, 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙕𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚 exposes how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.

October 5 • Mon 7 pm, doors at 6:30
Black Zombie 🎞️
dir. Maya Annik • 90 min.
$10, $7 for SPACE members
Co-presented by Indigo Arts Alliance and SPACE Gallery

🎤 Uniquely thrilled to welcome 𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙭 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙣 back to SPACE this Saturday, September 19. The man’s high concept, lo-fi synth pop performance art scratches an itch we know we have but usually give up trying to access. His last appearance on our stage, in 2023, was a perfect success, the performer summoning his oddly timeless pop songs from the alternate universe FM charts where they reside and entrusting them to a writhing audience. It smoked. The evening even included an extemporaneous 7-minute review of our wooden stool chairs (it rated highly).

And surely you know these songs, especially the big ones — but did you hear them today? Did you know you could do several of them as karaoke? Have you spent time with his new album, 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘦𝘵? This is a record, we’re told, born of nine long-form screenplays written between 2022 and 2025. Wait until you hear “Red Hook Rain.”

Some lines from 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘦𝘵:

“I put on a tone of weight / For a role I didn’t get / Aye / Now I’m always late to set”

“You 3D print a guillotine / And then you tear the statue down”

“Every puddle needs a drop of rain / Everybody needs a little pain”

“I’ve been selling your location for cash”

Join us to welcome Alex back, and wish him a belated happy birthday (his birthday was on 9/11). Support from 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙝 𝘿𝙖 𝘾𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙖.

Here are snippets from several songs, videos. We’re not even going to include anything from 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 — too easy!

2 • “Statue Down,” from 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘦𝘵
3 • “Red Hook Rain,” from 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘦𝘵
4 • “Best Life,” from 𝘖𝘹𝘺 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤
5 • “Real Bad Lookin’,” from 𝘑𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬
6 • “Sara Jo,” from 𝘖𝘹𝘺 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤

September 19 • Sat 8 pm, doors at 7:30
Alex Cameron with ᴊ ᴏ s ʜ ᴅ ᴀ ᴄ ᴏ s ᴛ ᴀ
$25 advance, $30 day of • $2 off for SPACE members

On October 8, join us for an evening with award-winning writer, artist, and anthropologist 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝 to discuss her new graphic narrative book 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨, co-presented with our friends at Print: A Bookstore. Tickets are on sale at SPACE538.ORG.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨 (Harvard University Press) is a haunting graphic narrative that compels readers to confront the most harrowing chapters of human history not as distant events but as visceral experiences. A descendent of genocide survivors, 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝 covers ten major atrocities across five centuries: the mass slaughter of the First Peoples of the Americas, the brutalization of Black Americans, the devastation of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian killing fields, the Rwandan genocide, the Bosnian genocide, the deadly persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, and the genocide in Gaza.

Walrath makes plain that the purpose of genocide is always a land grab, and its central apparatus is dehumanization: each chapter delves into how dehumanization operates, not just through violence but through the political and intellectual systems that enable it. The book’s unique interactive design allows readers to reshape images of victims into grotesque forms mirroring the mental mechanisms of dehumanization. With each page turn, the victims’ humanity is restored, making their suffering undeniable.

“Dana Walrath is an unflinching guide through the long sweep of humanity’s most shameful episodes. This is how art answers back.” – Joe Sacco, author of Palestine and The Once and Future Riot

October 8 • Thu 7 pm, doors at 6:30
𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝 discusses 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨
$5 general admission, $30 includes copy of book
Co-presented with Print: A Bookstore