Untitled (for resonants) Henrik Andersson, Bill Burns, Ultra-red, Hong-Kai Wang

&

Fadings Kabir Carter, Seth Cluett, Mattin, Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere

Curated by Jens Maier-Rothe

April 3 – 24, 2010 Opening: Saturday April 3, 6-8pm, performance by Seth Cluett at 8pm Open Saturdays from 2-8pm http://www.sonicthinking.org http://www.diapasongallery.org

The two projects «Untitled (for resonants)» and «Fadings» jointly comprise the third and last act in a series of group shows that investigate the materiality of sound. In this series, each show takes up a different perspective to reflect the social and political dimensions of auditory experience within the context of contemporary art. Following up on two studies of reuse and simultaneity in the previous projects, the third show focuses on acoustic resonance in space. That is, sound resonating in space as opposed to light reflecting space. For that matter, it brings together various positions on echo-political aesthetics and their potentialities within critical discourses. Four installations (resonants) and four events (fadings) will be shown on four days:

Untitled (for resonants)

«Untitled (for resonants)» dedicates the space to those objects and bodies that resonate within it, thus to the four artists themselves as much as to their works and the erratic, therefore untitled, form in which they spill over and resonate with one another.

For «If it is not love then it is the bomb that will bring us together» Henrik Andersson transformed the seismic recording of a nuclear explosion (Pakistan 1998) into sound.

Bill Burns’ latest book «Two Boiler Suits and a Playlist: A Primate Guide.» describes the chattels given to prisoners and the music that is played to them at the prison camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 52-page guide includes 18 line illustrations and two colour plates.

Ultra-red’s «Untitled (for multiple voices)» serves as a preliminary draft for a multiple voice composition. A libretto of demands is assembled from the record of seven performances of SILENT|LISTEN (2005-2006), a series of tactical occupations of major American art institutions to reconnect the art world and AIDS activists with memories of when the arts served as a crucial arena – in some communities, the only public space – for open discussions about the pandemic.

The multichannel sound piece «Setting Up the Banquet» by Taiwanese artist Hong-Kai Wang orchestrates a kaleidoscopic soundscape from recordings of Chinese-operated commercial spaces in Madrid, Spain. Through reinserting this imaginary Chinatown into Sunset Park, an area also known as Brooklyn’s Chinatown, Wang reflects on the cultural disinformation and disorientation that Chinese hegemonic politics constantly evoke in her own life.

Fadings

«Fadings» are occasional gaps in the frequency reception, often caused by geographic obstacles and interfering transmitters closeby. These gaps are widely known to occur when a car radio suddenly looses the signal at a traffic light stop and moving the car only a few inches forward brings the music back. The title also blurs the active mixing of multiple sources with the way in which sounds or memories passively fade over time. The four performative events will variantly seek, provoke, frequent and intensify such fadings in the framework of the show.

April 03 – 8pm, Seth Cluett performs «The Chorus of Idle Footsteps»

April 10 – 8pm, Kabir Carter, performance

April 17 – 6pm, Mattin gives instructions for a public conversation, followed by a panel discussion with Ursula Nistrup, Nate Harrison and others, starts at 8pm

April 24 – 6pm, Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere, «Listening Takes Effort.»

All events are part of the ongoing project Sonic Thinking. For program details and updates please refer to our websites.