Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls)
Weight Perception
Imagined weight can be heavier than real weight, sometimes to the point where our perceptions apply more pressure and gravity than what can actually be accounted for. How does this happen? In today’s world, where environmental disasters of tragic magnitude have practically become the norm, where ongoing wars are being fought simultaneously on multiple fronts, and where we’re in the midst of the worst economic catastrophe since the great depression, it’s apparent that we are living in “heavy times”. In some way or another, each of us carries the weight of our times, if not in a physically tangible way, at the very least in the mind. How are we dealing with all of this? What is the current state of contemplation surrounding it? Where does the resulting energy find a resting place? Can bad things actually be transformed into good?
It is not the intent of this exhibition to address any of these issues directly, as much as it is to address the individual’s unconscious and conscious responses to the current state of affairs that dominates our political and social landscape. Oftentimes, we attempt to escape the heaviness, through expressions of laughter, serenity, or even music. Sometimes, we attack the weight head-on, using pent up energy that inevitably needs to find its release somewhere. In this exhibition, eleven artists address this placement, both definitively and abstractly, and in the two-dimensional and the sculptural. Featuring new work by Ben Venom, Casey Jex Smith, Glen Baldridge, Harley Lafarrah Eaves, Kevin Taylor, Kyle Ranson, Laurie Steelink, N.Dash, Shelter Serra, Thomas Øvlisen, & Vanessa Blaikie.
Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls)
The Summer Show @ Cottage Home
Graffiti Tel Aviv (Walls)
“Dave Anderson: One Block”
Aaron Young
Miki Yui
July 16 Japanese artist Miki Yui presents her brand new work Strøm made for the exhibition space Phonebox at the artist-run gallery IMO. Phonebox is located in a phone cabin, which now serves as an intimate exhibition space with room for only one person at a time.
In Miki Yui’s work Strøm Phonebox becomes a unique place that is auditively connected to remote locations. The Danish word Strøm used in the title refers to the electrical nature of the telephone technology as well as an idea of sound as something streaming. The audience steps into a stream of sounds that likewise seem to flow into the phonebox. This happens due to speakers installed in the phonebox and special piezzo speaker-elements mounted on the pages of an old phonebook. The pages are set in motion so as to function as sound-emitting membranes.
Miki Yui is a Japanese artist based in Düsseldorf. In her work she investigates what she calls “small sounds”. Small sounds are sounds that result from minimal movements in the periphery of our auditory experience. Miki Yui’s work – whether it be large scale installations or audio-works on CD – combines the fragile and fluctuating with the concrete and tactile. She has recently developed the “acoustic survival kit 01” with artist Felix Hahn, which is a media body suit with built-in piezzo-speakers that generate sound. Whereas other media-suits used in virtual reality isolates the user from his or her surroundings, the survival kit connects its user through small speakers to his or her immediate environment. In this way her work calls attention to otherwise imperceptible “small” sounds and movements so as to connect the body to the world.
Miki Yui’s work is the last in a series of 12 sound-based works presented in Phonebox at IMO in the first half of 2010. The series is titled Sounds Up Close #1-12 and is curated by Kristoffer Akselbo and Rune Søchting. It is the intention of the series to present a number of important artists who work with sound as medium. The series reflects a number of different approaches to sound. Over a period of six months a total of twelve pieces have been presented each for a fortnight. Earlier artists presented in Phonebox are Stephen Vitiello (US), Ursula Nistrup (DK), Ultra-red (US), Jio Shimizu (JP), Camille Norment (US/N), Morten Skrøder Lund (DK), Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas (US/ES), Marc Behrens (DE), Dani Gal (IL), Steve Roden (US) and Don Ritter (CA).
Phonebox has earlier served as a phone cabin for the employees at Carlsberg. During the last six months the space, which is acoustically isolated, has been functioning as a unique frame for display and reception of sound-based works. Moreover, the space itself has played an important role in the conceptions of many of the presented works.
Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls) //
