Two pieces in particular drawn my attention during the visit of Tate Modern. Brain Forest Quipu by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña and 112L by Leonardo Drew.
Brain Forest Quipu has struck me straight away by its contradictions – massiveness and softness. At first I thought that this multi-media installation is dream-catchers. Two 27 meters long sculptures are hanging from the ceiling in Turbine Hall. The piece consists from fabric sculpture, sound, music, and video. It mourns the destruction of nature (rain forest and the loss of Indigenous history and culture (Anon, n.d.).
I have visited the piece several times in upcoming three days from our first visit. Physical presence of sculpture is quietly monumental like the rain forest itself. Sonic element gives to the piece the of dimension of change spanning over 8 hours. It has been conceived by Vicuña and directed by Colombian composer Ricardo Gallo and it brings together indigenous music from several regions, compositional silences, new pieces by Gallo, Vicuña, other artists and field recordings from nature.
I particularly indulged in listening to the sound and music from different distances from the piece within majestic Turbine Hall. The reverberation of the huge space brought to compositions the whole new perspective. The clarity of compositions was dissolving within long decaying echo of Turbine Hall and approaching closer to the core of the sculpture brought you to original sound of compositions but here it is – where the sound is coming from? It took me good few minutes to locate the source of the sound which was coming from many little speakers wrapped up in little cocoons blending with many other knots and fabrics.
What I didn’t enjoy about the piece was inherently necessary due to its placing and I myself was part of that – people visiting the gallery and their chatter within Turbine Hall were somehow disturbing the beauty of reverberation experienced whilst observing and listening to the sculpture from distance.
Another piece which I liked wasn’t probably a sound piece at its original intention however what intrigued me was its relation to the sound by the bias of my mindset of sound artist.
112L by Leonardo Drew is a sculpture made of wood. It made me thought how different may be interpretation of art pieces within fields or even across them based on our own history and interests.
Wooden sculpture immediately reminded me visual representation of sound waves (most likely white noise) in wavetable generator.
Anon, (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/cecilia-vicuña.