I popped in to the Rhodes Art Exhibition to
check it out, walked about the gallery in solitude, although there was some
gentleman tucked in a corner sketching something intensively on a piece of
paper. A piece of paper smaller than a
standard business card.
I then stepped in to a private room where
Jenna Burcell’s interactive installation was stationed – pretty impressive
stuff. So, basi-cal, the room is filled
with all these copper strings (cords) from ground to ceiling and together with
a synchronized sound system.
The copper cords are touch sensitive, same
mechanism as a touch screen cellphone and when you touch the copper strings a
specific sound start to play. It could be people in a deep conversation, dogs
barking, a musical instrument being played, traffic sound etc. it is intense
and gobsmacking.
Verb [ no
obj.]
(of an animal)
return by instinct to its territory after leaving it.
“Wandering through
a field of hundreds of glimmering copper strings, strung from floor to ceiling,
touch, listen and play your memories of home. Dogs barking, laughter,
thunder, traffic, a piano - wherever you may be today, wherever you may live,
each string of the artist Jenna Burchell’s touch-sensitive instrument Homing
triggers familiar sounds that take you back to that place, real or imagined,
where you know you belong, feel safe, breathe easily.
The travelling
project Homing encourages audiences to talk about what home means to
them in the context of diaspora. It is an opportunity to move diverse
people to interact and exchange stories, embracing the differences and
similarities that unite South Africans. This meticulously hand-built
interactive environment has been designed to be an accessible and exciting
meeting of contemporary art, sound and live interactive participation.
The unique
soundscapes are recorded and collected with the local communities prior to each
exhibition. Some of these memories, conversations and ambient sounds are
heard raw, others processed into intricate musical tones. “ - SOURCE
The project will be touring from the Grahamstown
National Arts Festival to Johannesburg, where a sample of the work will be
shown at the Turbine Art Fair, in the Turbine hollow from 18 to 20 July. After
its Johannesburg showing, the project will travel to Cape Town, where it will
be installed at the Lovell Gallery from 31 July to 13 September.
So go check it out when it is your city lover!
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