A solo exhibition presented by odradek in Gent, Belgium, from 13-15 June 2008.
Three installations, all based on the concept of 'music by mistake'.
1 Libera me: cloned Freud room, destorted Verdi aria, volume pedal (images + sound extract: listen at least 40 seconds!)
3 Wake me up before you go: toy figures, green button, bass shaker (images)
Solo Expo invited by odradek in Gallery Spijkstraat (lightmachine), Gent/B
From program note:
I am seized with fear and trembling
until the trial is at hand and the wrath to come:
It's cold out there, but it's warm in bed
They can dance, we'll stay home instead
Deliver me, O Lord,
from eternal death on that awful day
Wake me up before you go-go
Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
when the heavens and earth shall be shaken
and you shall come to judge the world by fire.
Turned a bright spark into a flame
My beats per minute never been the same
The day of wrath, that day of calamity and misery
a great and bitter day, indeed.
You take the grey skies out of my way
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day
1. Libera me:
The installation libera me is a theatrical room, placed slightly non-symmetrical in the exhibition space. Surrounded by fake walls and bookshelves the room of Sigmund Freuds famous couch is reconstructed with some essential elements. Only a floor lamp gives a bit of light. The visitor is invited to take place on the couch and listen from here to the sound file.
The sound file is the aria libera me from Verdis Requiem. By a reading mistake/bug of a computer the file is randomly distorted. This gives a very threatening extra layer to the original music. The distortion includes as well a looping process. Non of this is artificially made by the artist, but only the result of this digital error.
Just outside the room the visitor finds a big green armchair (like the one Freud was sitting on during his sessions). This outside perspective is supported by a foot-volume pedal in front of the chair. Herewith the person sitting on the chair can control the volume (and nothing else) of the sound. Even though the sound stays loud, the controller may take away or add some of the aggressive potential of the loudness. This may be considered a one-way interaction between visitors of the installation.
2. Gegen die Wand
FM radio, streamed piece 'ram-ing', served glas of water (sound)
Soundfile used here is from the series 'ram-ing'. Here a description of a CD version:
From program note:
I am seized with fear and trembling
until the trial is at hand and the wrath to come:
It's cold out there, but it's warm in bed
They can dance, we'll stay home instead
Deliver me, O Lord,
from eternal death on that awful day
Wake me up before you go-go
Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
when the heavens and earth shall be shaken
and you shall come to judge the world by fire.
Turned a bright spark into a flame
My beats per minute never been the same
The day of wrath, that day of calamity and misery
a great and bitter day, indeed.
You take the grey skies out of my way
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day
1. Libera me:
The installation libera me is a theatrical room, placed slightly non-symmetrical in the exhibition space. Surrounded by fake walls and bookshelves the room of Sigmund Freuds famous couch is reconstructed with some essential elements. Only a floor lamp gives a bit of light. The visitor is invited to take place on the couch and listen from here to the sound file.
The sound file is the aria libera me from Verdis Requiem. By a reading mistake/bug of a computer the file is randomly distorted. This gives a very threatening extra layer to the original music. The distortion includes as well a looping process. Non of this is artificially made by the artist, but only the result of this digital error.
Just outside the room the visitor finds a big green armchair (like the one Freud was sitting on during his sessions). This outside perspective is supported by a foot-volume pedal in front of the chair. Herewith the person sitting on the chair can control the volume (and nothing else) of the sound. Even though the sound stays loud, the controller may take away or add some of the aggressive potential of the loudness. This may be considered a one-way interaction between visitors of the installation.
2. Gegen die Wand
FM radio, streamed piece 'ram-ing', served glas of water (sound)
Soundfile used here is from the series 'ram-ing'. Here a description of a CD version:
"This piece is based on a ram-sound files of spoken voices, which I first by mistake and then deliberately opened by programs normally unable to read these sort of files. I did this by giving them false file extensions.
A kind of forced mistake with results of 20 times the original length and of an abstract beauty.
This particular piece was composed out of different files for a DVD of the artists residence place Nadine in Brussels in 2006.
Other versions of ram-ing appear in my installation Gegen die Wand (2008) and as soundtrack of my Cross the land - Map Dérive film (2010)."
3. Wake me up before you go
toy figures, green button, bass shaker
A kind of forced mistake with results of 20 times the original length and of an abstract beauty.
This particular piece was composed out of different files for a DVD of the artists residence place Nadine in Brussels in 2006.
Other versions of ram-ing appear in my installation Gegen die Wand (2008) and as soundtrack of my Cross the land - Map Dérive film (2010)."
3. Wake me up before you go
toy figures, green button, bass shaker
A happy playmobile family, frozen into a BBQ moment on a red field. The approaching visitor watches the situation and might feel invited to press the green button next to it. Doing so, the integrated, invisible bass shaker is triggered, "booommm", and the family-set up falls apart.
Now the visitor can set up his or her or their own situation. What constellation to choose? Who is where, doing what? Is it again daddy, who turns the beef? Is mum taking care of kiddy, or kiddy taken care of daddy?
A Familienaufstellung of the other kind. Frozen constellation, woken up by destruction. The only sure thing is the next "booommm".
