sound
above: recording the sound of salt crystals, Salzburg, Austria. 2019.
below: the sound and the fury, installation view, Axiom Gallery, Boston, MA. 2008. Black latex, zipper, grommets, hooks, red plastic “gimp”, illuminated exit sign, power supply. wave form of the sound of George W. Bush saying the word "war". His war overhung us like a black cloud.
My work is cross disciplinary but my grounding is in sound. It is immensely present in my work: in the ways in which I think about time, in my examinations of language and use of text, even in the way (really the "where") in which I put things on the wall when building installations: Cagean silence, granular synthesis, and the construction of meaning through sequenced objects in space and time.
In 2020, after a break from sound I made a piece for Ear Wave Event. You can hear it here.
Writing in Art News Renée Reizman described the piece as "chiming alien signals captured on a staticky, faulty radar". The piece includes EMF recordings of computers and other devices in ancient surroundings and the sound of me playing a glockenspiel.
Here's a link to a much earlier piece, published in DIAGRAM.
Much of my work in sound is conceptually based, often centered around the material characteristics of sound: as object, as artifact of technology, as by-product and witness to the act of drawing, etc.
top left: all the Love that's in-between. One of a series of 9 crocheted waveforms made from acrylic "Red Heart" brand yarn of various people saying the word "Love" . Sources range from friends to historical figures and icons of popular media (Moses from the Ten Commandments). Each of the waveforms is made from a different color of yarn. Dimensions variable, approx. 12" x 3" x 1/4" each. 2004.
top right: panel discussion (detail). Painted wood, speakers, motion detectors, pre-recorded sound chips. The motion of visitors through a room triggered the playback of multiple sounds: of highly processed human speech and of the sounds of creaking trees. In the original installation the walls of the room were covered in fake wood paneling, painted white. Dimensions variable; at least 8'(w) x 8'(h) x 8(d)'. 2005. Image credit: Pete Mauney
middle: top: something mechanical in something living, paint, text, laser cut vinyl on gallery wall. 2011.
below: drawing sets
Installation with paired drawings and stereo headphone playback. Using a contact microphone I recorded the sounds I made while drawing an image. I then played back the recording and tried as closely as possible to imitate the sounds, while producing a second drawing (with my eyes closed, so as to focus on the sound, and not the image I was (re)creating). The pairs of drawings are displayed together, with the original on the left. The resulting recordings are combined as a stereo mix; again, with the original on the left (channel), and the copy on the right. 2003