selected work
sonic/performance
Haptic sound installation composed for benches and 4 voices
Visitors enter a space filled with the sound of deep, resonant voices that form a pre-lingual polyphonic composition contemplating experience in the contemporary state of the world. The texture of the voices is akin to a humming, a meditation, a moan, or a chant. Sitting on one of a series of benches, the voices’ vibrations are felt directly through the body - it is as though they are physically communicating with you, drawing you into their sonic and psychic sphere, evoking something primal, visceral, bodily and universal.
This kind of vocalization has been replicated in various cultures around the world from the practice of ‘moaning’ from African American church, to Tibetan monk throat singing, to OM mantra mediation, and beyond. The sound could at once gesture to catharsis, a painful groan, a comforting meditation, or a kind of exalting orgasm. While drawing the body into the physical experience of the sound, “Prime” creates a constellation of cultural references that speak to a connectedness of sound, voice and the body’s experience.
The visual gaze is outwards to the sea or a busy pedestrian street - various scenes from various lives, but moreso is it internal, as the body is reflected back to itself through the sound.
During the opening days of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, live performances by Camille Norment, Håvard Skaset, and Canartic vocalist Sujitha Pathur accompanied the installation.
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READ MORE +The installation of this work at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 is indebted to Justin Nelson, without whose help I may have never navigated the chaos, intern Laëtitia Hell-Gonzales for assistance with audio pre-editing, Cato Langnes and Hans Wilmers from NOTAM for technical consultation, and the tremendous voices of Jeremiah Abiah, Edwin Davis, Jorell Williams, and ‘anonymous’.
This project has been supported by Fond for Lyd og Bilde, Kulturrådet and OCA (Office of Contemporary Art, Norway).
EXHIBITED
2017 Lyon Biennial
2017 Temple Bar Gallery. Dublin, Ireland
2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale
VIDEO FILES
Visitors enter a space filled with the sound of deep, resonant voices that form a pre-lingual polyphonic composition contemplating experience in the contemporary state of the world. The texture of the voices is akin to a humming, a meditation, a moan, or a chant. Sitting on one of a series of benches, the voices’ vibrations are felt directly through the body - it is as though they are physically communicating with you, drawing you into their sonic and psychic sphere, evoking something primal, visceral, bodily and universal.
This kind of vocalization has been replicated in various cultures around the world from the practice of ‘moaning’ from African American church, to Tibetan monk throat singing, to OM mantra mediation, and beyond. The sound could at once gesture to catharsis, a painful groan, a comforting meditation, or a kind of exalting orgasm. While drawing the body into the physical experience of the sound, “Prime” creates a constellation of cultural references that speak to a connectedness of sound, voice and the body’s experience.
The visual gaze is outwards to the sea or a busy pedestrian street - various scenes from various lives, but moreso is it internal, as the body is reflected back to itself through the sound.
During the opening days of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, live performances by Camille Norment, Håvard Skaset, and Canartic vocalist Sujitha Pathur accompanied the installation.
-
READ MORE +The installation of this work at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 is indebted to Justin Nelson, without whose help I may have never navigated the chaos, intern Laëtitia Hell-Gonzales for assistance with audio pre-editing, Cato Langnes and Hans Wilmers from NOTAM for technical consultation, and the tremendous voices of Jeremiah Abiah, Edwin Davis, Jorell Williams, and ‘anonymous’.
This project has been supported by Fond for Lyd og Bilde, Kulturrådet and OCA (Office of Contemporary Art, Norway).
EXHIBITED
2017 Lyon Biennial
2017 Temple Bar Gallery. Dublin, Ireland
2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale
