So i skipped downtown to find this thing swinging about
A typical oval shaped room, blacked out windows above the gallery seating, with eight individually moving pendulums swinging about from their own motors hung high in the rafters. Running on their own randomly invented melodies with internal lights responding to the frequencies produced, these beings probably only took up 0.003% of the room in space but in presence there was no escape.
Being part of the audience i was unable to disinter-act with the piece whilst in the room the darkness draws your eyes to the lights and the sound was one of those enveloping round edged ones.
i found this part interesting, in a modern day setting where we always consider the space in relation to the work the creator tries to hide the space and block it out of the experience. Perhaps for no specific reason, but it tickles me when this is an exhibition commissioned to celebrate the new opening of this room.
But for the piece this is a positive because you cant ignore it it addresses you directly.
In terms of fine art i don't know where it stands to me its just one of those technical exercises you see occasionally i enjoyed it but wouldn't say there was much to it. BUT thats the important thing it wasn't aimed at a fine art audience it was for the public and sponsors to encourage them to come and see what their council had been funding to build. successful in this sense.
One of the interesting features of this for me was that the wooden structure of the room was based on ship building technology and the rhythm of the sound and oscillating pendulums could be read as a distant echo of waves, sort of therefore turning the room into an inverted boat. The audience of course would be one used to going to this venue to hear opera music. It looks as if the same composer will be showcased in Expo Leeds 09 (24 to 29 Sept) www.expofestival.org
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