How do artists combine sound and sculpture in their practice? Join three panelists to explore this question at our Sound Thinking symposium.
Date/Time: Nov 19 2016, 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Surrey, Surrey Art GalleryCost: Free
Most people associate art galleries with looking, but this is by far not the only experience. Artists also create exhibitions with sound to make for museum and gallery visits that shift our experiences of what we are viewing. We invite you to explore the sound of art and objects with artists Lee Hutzulak, Jay Bundy Johnson, Brady Marks, and DB Boyko for Resonant Things: Sound and Objecthood on Canada’s West Coast. Along with presentations, this event features a sound performance called Contactopus by Lee Hutzulak with Dave Leith that uses repurposed junk, rudimentary handmade instruments, and carefully curated materials.
Everyday objects talk to us all the time. Appliances hail us when they have finished their tasks, doors emit sounds when they have been transgressed or left open, personal electronic devices let us know when it’s time to perform actions, and toys entertain or soothe us with sounds and songs. What does it mean when so many of our formerly inanimate objects address us with so much noise? As in daily life, objects in art exhibits are often far from silent—contemporary sculpture and art installations often incorporate sound as a central element. With the rise of more compact and reliable electronic playback technology and the influence of 20th century avant-garde movements, sound and sculpture could be found paired together in the museum. Yet sculpture is still largely thought of as a silent experience.
This year’s Sound Thinking symposium examines a number of key artists working in Canada—with a particular emphasis on contemporary West Coast practices and histories—and their object-oriented, sound-infused artworks and live performances. This symposium will consider the reasons why so much sound art, and other forms of “visual” art that features sound, has frequently been left out and/or misrepresented within art and music histories.
Convened by Jordan Strom, Surrey Art Gallery Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Sound Thinking 2016: Resonant Things: Sound and Objecthood on Canada’s West Coast is presented in conjunction with three of our fall still life shows: Mimetic Workshop: Studio Still Lifes of Fiona Ackerman and Kelly Lycan; Small Stages: Still Life from the Permanent Collection; and Jay Bundy Johnson: Being still (life) shows us who we are.
About the Panelists:
DB Boyko
DB Boyko is a specialist in experimental voice who has performed with a variety of artists from the local and international creative music scene. For over fifteen years, DB has devoted much of her energy to producing the work of other artists as Director / Curator for the Music Program of the Vancouver artist-run-centre the Western Front.
Lee Hutzulak
Lee Hutzulak has been performing, recording, and releasing improvised music since 1991, primarily under the name Dixie’s Death Pool. While he is increasingly making electronic music these days as part of the band Moth Mouth, over the course of his career Lee has frequently made live and recorded music that has included sounds from acoustic instruments that have been modified with everyday objects, found sounds from field recordings, and sound effects that he creates live and in studio.
Jay Bundy Johnson
Jay Bundy Johnson is a visual artist, musician, and educator. A graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, his kinetic sculpture and video works have been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Europe. His interactive sound exhibit Being still (life) shows us who we are is on display in our TechLab until January 10, 2017.
Brady Marks
Brady Marks is a digital media artist, DJ, and host of the Co-op Radio Soundscape Show. She holds a M.Sc. in Interactive Arts from Simon Fraser University and a B.Sc. in Computer Science. She has defined her own role as that of “Cultural Prototyper” in which the working out and trying out of new cultural configurations are matched, supported, or opposed with technological apparatuses. Brady works against the idea that technology determines culture, but rather shows how they are co-created.
Dave Leith
Dave Leith is a multidisciplinary artist with an extensive background in photography, digital art and video, and sound art and music, including recording and performing. His visual art has been exhibited in Canada, Korea, and Sweden. He has performed sound and music at live venues and festivals across Canada, Italy, United States, and New Zealand.
About Sound Thinking
Surrey Art Gallery's Sound Thinking symposium is an annual event which brings together practitioners and professionals in the field of sound art. The symposium features leading sound artists, scholars, and researchers in the field of sound studies, along with visual artists who use sound as key components of their practice and musicians who experiment with the limits of music and sound. Sound Thinking is part of Surrey Art Gallery's Open Sound program developed in 2008 to support the production and presentation of audio art forms as part of contemporary art practice.
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