We are happy to announce the fourth issue of grapefruits,
presenting six female* composers and sound artists with
different approaches towards sound installations:
The work of Shadwa Ali is
characterised by a playful reflexion of human psychology. Her
sound-based installations examine inter-human relations as well
as the relationship between people and their environment, for
which she uses electronic sounds, field recordings and other
types of media. In Natascha Sadr Haghighian’s
installation Ankersentrum (surviving in the ruinous ruin) the
whistle forms the audible center being a musical instrument as
well as an instrument of protest. Portland-based Brenna Murphy creates
surreal, and participatory spaces where protagonists are
encouraged to wander and explore. Through her works you will step into another
state of mind. In her installation Camille Norment deals
with tension and with the euphoric and traumatic effects of
sound by exploring the music of glass. Claudia Robles-Angel turns
the human body into a musical and visual instrument by
implementing biofeedback methods into her multimedia
installations and performances. Alba Triana is
a Colombian composer, currently residing in Miami, who has more
recently focused on creating inaudible sound
installations. Enjoy reading!
Composing Sound Installations
After the previous issues on Performance (#02) and Instruments (#03) it seemed necessary to write about Installations as well. Apparently, the boundaries of those categories are blurry. […]
Sand is a material likely to be ignored in places full of
it. But it can turn into a vivid material by movement, vibration
and sound as soon as one gets closer to it and become quiet
again as soon as one walks away. Shadwa Ali’s work Magic Sand (2017) plays with attention, movement and sound by using sand as a central element of her acoustic and visual installation.
[…] artist website
Photo: Natascha Sadr Haghighian by Jasper Kettner.
The whistle forms the conceptual and concrete audible center of the installation Ankersentrum (surviving in the ruinous ruin), which
Natascha Sadr Haghighian showed in the German Pavilion of the
58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
2019. Its sound permeates both the walls of the monumental
building in the Giardini from 1938 and the wall that the artist
has built in the interior of the Pavilion. The installation
tells in multiple voices of migration, isolation, national
economic interests in globalization and the continuity of
colonialism.
[…] artist website
You can watch, listen to, or move through Brenna Murphy’s
work. Often, everything can happen at once. Either way you are
drawn into a labyrinth of hypnotic shapes, sounds and
details. Shells become sound generators, the touch of another
person changes the light in the room and everything begins to
crackle. One wishes to become such a detail oneself and
sometimes this wish is even fulfilled.
[…] artist website
Camille Norment is a multi-media artist born in the US and based
in Oslo, Norway. Her work, which includes live performance,
installation, drawing and recorded sound, explores the
socio-political encoding of sound historically and recently. It
deals with somatic and cognitive experiences. Cultural
psychoacoustics play a huge role in Norment’s critical art and
build an aesthetic and conceptual framework.
[…] artist website
Photo: Claudia Robles-Angel by Constantinos Samaras.
Claudia’s art creates something magical – through biofeedback,
she translates real-time scientific data into sound and light,
and in turn, connects the visitor with their inner human
self. Although her works are highly technical and
research-driven, at its core, each installation and performance
focuses on the most human emotions ranging from stress to
empathy.
[…] artist website
Cierro los ojos para poder ver – a quote by Paul Gaugin
that fits quite well with Alba Fernanda Triana’s way of
composing, although when one looks at her more recent sound
installations, a slight variation comes to mind: I shut my ears in order to hear.
The afore mentioned quote appears in the program notes for the 2007 concert held in Bogota at the Luis Ángel Arango Library’s Concert Hall,
consisting solely of works by Alba Fernanda Triana. She wrote as
well the program notes, something that is not so commonly seen,
at least in the history of this concert series.
[…] artist website
