Sound Art: SMORGASBORD
(On 'Buffet of Sounds: Sonic & Visual Feast' featuring Lirio Salvador, Tad Ermitano, Toshiyuki Seido, Jon Romero, Cris Garcimo, Stanley Castelo, Erick Calilan; February 6-March 2, 2018; Artist Reception/Sound Art Performance on February 12, 2018; 4:00-9:00PM at NCCA Gallery, Intramuros, Manila)
Curatorial text by Wire Tuazon
The opening of the exhibition-cum-thanksgiving show coincides with Lirio Salvador's birthdate, a fitting tribute to the man behind the ingenious ethno-industrial noise assault/ensemble Elemento and founder of the independent art space Espasyo Siningdikato, a creative venue located in Dasmariñas, Cavite. As a key figure in the experimental and sound art scene in the country, Lirio is considered as the modern-punk native with primal tendencies. By instinct, a struggling artist-alchemist who deconstructs banal objects into new forms (sandata), Lirio fuses sonic aspects of our technological environment to ordinary objects and commodities deeply imbedded in our contemporary setting.
As sound art occurs in different kinds of spaces and often takes time to immerse yourself in, it is also active everywhere else: in our stomachs, on the roads, in compost heaps, through the old school fax machine, even in spaces that exist in the mind. This new strand serves as the starting point for the exhibition --'Buffet of Sounds: A Sonic and Visual Feast in Honor of Lirio Salvador,' a gastrosonic event that will showcase selected works of Lirio in a buffet, eat-all-you-can setting set in an aural-sculptural, omnium-gatherum, sound installation environment. The show is an interesting proof of the complex sounds and noises resembling a picturesque association of the human situation in which we find ourselves at a given time. Everyday life with a twist of city trance is brought to the NCCA gallery, a space where urban-dwellers could come and have a taste of all the sound menus available. It's like eating with your ears, treating hearing as another form of seeing. Whether you are familiar with sound art or not, music/sound is still in the ear of the beholder. Sounds delicious? This is sound art on food trip.
As a homage to Lirio Salvador and to render this reference as functional as possible, selected artists with a predilection for exploring sound in the contemporary sense are invited to cook up exciting interactive works that mix sound constructions, sonic sculptures, self-built instruments, found sounds and video. These are gathered together in a collective unfolding of creative potential while also enabling people to physically engage with the artworks. The selection (composed of Jon Romero, Tad Ermitanio, Chris Garcimo, Stanley Castelo and Seido Toshiyuki) is a banding together of sound artists who have worked or somehow collaborated with Lirio, sound artists who are active in the exploration of alternative/experimental art and expanding the way we view, feel, hear and engage with art.
Given this specific format, Jon Romero's 'Sound Bridge' is a relevant and contemplative piece, complete with chairs and a table set for eating with its usual set of eating utensils. This piece, simple, direct and at times amusing, is an offshoot of Radyo Elemento, a device used by Lirio's band Elemento made up of circuit-bent radios attached to the cutlery. With the direct contact and physical involvement of those who choose to explore the installation, whoever may hear or experience this piece will remember that its greatest beauty comes from the fact that out of these points of audio anchorage, vital interfaces of relationships and traces of inspiration emerge from the objects.
Linked to this is the interactive installation 'Noise Cream,' a free-standing food peddler's assemblage of repurposed audio devices which can be freely played by the audience. Part-nostalgic yet celebratory, Cris Garcimo expresses his fascination with sound on a shared experience -- that is, of Lirio's penchant for ice cream. Particularly striking in the installation is the variety of sonorities emitted, from bell-like metallophones to subtle micro-tonal nuances, enchanting and gorgeous sound-crafting as an art form. Garcimo is also the organizer of Musiko Imbento, a platform for object makers and instrument-builders making use of repurposed materials.
Similar in vein, Stanley Castelo throws in a handful of objects and toys and 'Circuit-Bended Jambalaya' is set into play, giving the exhibition a wonderful exploratory atmosphere. Conducting a vivid tapestry of innovative fun element amidst the glitchy montage of sounds produced from an amalgam of circuit-bended electronic toys and digital synthesizers, it is the sheer musicality of the pieces creating augmented rhythm patterns that convey some of the magic. The playful exploration of shapes, surface and sonic textures is a joy to listen to.
On the other hand, 'Foot-Controlled Synthesizer or Board for Playing Electronic Sounds' by Toshiyuki Seido involves the manipulation of the aural with the physical body, calculated moves that interact with spatial structures. In constant evolution are the spaces between the external and internal body, determined by their innate characteristics such as weight, flexibility, proximity and distance, enhancing the physical properties of sound in a semi-primitive and unique improvisation on the verge of abstraction.
Expanding the vocabulary of the electronic medium and making full use of its remarkable potential, Tad Ermitano is an explorer of experimental films and considered to be one of the seminal pioneers of sound art in the country. In his audio visual piece 'Hulikotekan', the possible correlation between auditory and visual images is woven in a network of linguistic signs. Through the appropriation of a translation system reflected in the title's structure, an interplay on semiotics shows an evolving pattern in the round, produced by the interaction of echoes created by the household objects. In these seriality and sequencing of how we receive and process information, a whole range of identification arises, as the spaces of memory and sound images absorbed by a random-process make clear. In this work the psychological aspects of sounds via images connote the power of evocation, a suggestive possibility in the listener's mind.
While the exhibition mediates between excursions/encounter/experience and contextual performativity, it also provides a redefinition of modalities, investigating the use of technology and machine in the context and idiom of the visual and the aural. These interjections that coalesce into a compelling bricolage of sonicscapes, in which all the strange forces we meet in modern life, seem to have undergone a degree of harmonization and humanization and are working together towards a world where things not only look and feel better, but also sound more fitting- as we become part of each piece: part human, part machine.
To Lirio, who from the beginning has been pushing boundaries, experiments and innovations in the arts after having studied and produced a great number of sound works but still despairing on the unimaginative direction it has been taking (The arts are not bad, it's the overinflated way some people think about them that has made them unreal). History is only halfway to fulfill these dreams.
And most of all to Lirio's vision, the most interesting and beautiful sound source, that can cut through almost any amount of electronic modifications.
Para kay Lirio Salvador at sa mahabang panahon ng pagkakakilala at pagkakaibigan, kasama sa Sining.
******
Year VII. Issue 41. Feb. 4-11, 2018. ISSN 2244-3851. DTI Registration No. 01987812. Editor: Richard R. Gappi. aRNO: Exponent of Community Journalism.
The opening of the exhibition-cum-thanksgiving show coincides with Lirio Salvador's birthdate, a fitting tribute to the man behind the ingenious ethno-industrial noise assault/ensemble Elemento and founder of the independent art space Espasyo Siningdikato, a creative venue located in Dasmariñas, Cavite. As a key figure in the experimental and sound art scene in the country, Lirio is considered as the modern-punk native with primal tendencies. By instinct, a struggling artist-alchemist who deconstructs banal objects into new forms (sandata), Lirio fuses sonic aspects of our technological environment to ordinary objects and commodities deeply imbedded in our contemporary setting.
As sound art occurs in different kinds of spaces and often takes time to immerse yourself in, it is also active everywhere else: in our stomachs, on the roads, in compost heaps, through the old school fax machine, even in spaces that exist in the mind. This new strand serves as the starting point for the exhibition --'Buffet of Sounds: A Sonic and Visual Feast in Honor of Lirio Salvador,' a gastrosonic event that will showcase selected works of Lirio in a buffet, eat-all-you-can setting set in an aural-sculptural, omnium-gatherum, sound installation environment. The show is an interesting proof of the complex sounds and noises resembling a picturesque association of the human situation in which we find ourselves at a given time. Everyday life with a twist of city trance is brought to the NCCA gallery, a space where urban-dwellers could come and have a taste of all the sound menus available. It's like eating with your ears, treating hearing as another form of seeing. Whether you are familiar with sound art or not, music/sound is still in the ear of the beholder. Sounds delicious? This is sound art on food trip.
As a homage to Lirio Salvador and to render this reference as functional as possible, selected artists with a predilection for exploring sound in the contemporary sense are invited to cook up exciting interactive works that mix sound constructions, sonic sculptures, self-built instruments, found sounds and video. These are gathered together in a collective unfolding of creative potential while also enabling people to physically engage with the artworks. The selection (composed of Jon Romero, Tad Ermitanio, Chris Garcimo, Stanley Castelo and Seido Toshiyuki) is a banding together of sound artists who have worked or somehow collaborated with Lirio, sound artists who are active in the exploration of alternative/experimental art and expanding the way we view, feel, hear and engage with art.
Given this specific format, Jon Romero's 'Sound Bridge' is a relevant and contemplative piece, complete with chairs and a table set for eating with its usual set of eating utensils. This piece, simple, direct and at times amusing, is an offshoot of Radyo Elemento, a device used by Lirio's band Elemento made up of circuit-bent radios attached to the cutlery. With the direct contact and physical involvement of those who choose to explore the installation, whoever may hear or experience this piece will remember that its greatest beauty comes from the fact that out of these points of audio anchorage, vital interfaces of relationships and traces of inspiration emerge from the objects.
Linked to this is the interactive installation 'Noise Cream,' a free-standing food peddler's assemblage of repurposed audio devices which can be freely played by the audience. Part-nostalgic yet celebratory, Cris Garcimo expresses his fascination with sound on a shared experience -- that is, of Lirio's penchant for ice cream. Particularly striking in the installation is the variety of sonorities emitted, from bell-like metallophones to subtle micro-tonal nuances, enchanting and gorgeous sound-crafting as an art form. Garcimo is also the organizer of Musiko Imbento, a platform for object makers and instrument-builders making use of repurposed materials.
Similar in vein, Stanley Castelo throws in a handful of objects and toys and 'Circuit-Bended Jambalaya' is set into play, giving the exhibition a wonderful exploratory atmosphere. Conducting a vivid tapestry of innovative fun element amidst the glitchy montage of sounds produced from an amalgam of circuit-bended electronic toys and digital synthesizers, it is the sheer musicality of the pieces creating augmented rhythm patterns that convey some of the magic. The playful exploration of shapes, surface and sonic textures is a joy to listen to.
On the other hand, 'Foot-Controlled Synthesizer or Board for Playing Electronic Sounds' by Toshiyuki Seido involves the manipulation of the aural with the physical body, calculated moves that interact with spatial structures. In constant evolution are the spaces between the external and internal body, determined by their innate characteristics such as weight, flexibility, proximity and distance, enhancing the physical properties of sound in a semi-primitive and unique improvisation on the verge of abstraction.
Expanding the vocabulary of the electronic medium and making full use of its remarkable potential, Tad Ermitano is an explorer of experimental films and considered to be one of the seminal pioneers of sound art in the country. In his audio visual piece 'Hulikotekan', the possible correlation between auditory and visual images is woven in a network of linguistic signs. Through the appropriation of a translation system reflected in the title's structure, an interplay on semiotics shows an evolving pattern in the round, produced by the interaction of echoes created by the household objects. In these seriality and sequencing of how we receive and process information, a whole range of identification arises, as the spaces of memory and sound images absorbed by a random-process make clear. In this work the psychological aspects of sounds via images connote the power of evocation, a suggestive possibility in the listener's mind.
While the exhibition mediates between excursions/encounter/experience and contextual performativity, it also provides a redefinition of modalities, investigating the use of technology and machine in the context and idiom of the visual and the aural. These interjections that coalesce into a compelling bricolage of sonicscapes, in which all the strange forces we meet in modern life, seem to have undergone a degree of harmonization and humanization and are working together towards a world where things not only look and feel better, but also sound more fitting- as we become part of each piece: part human, part machine.
To Lirio, who from the beginning has been pushing boundaries, experiments and innovations in the arts after having studied and produced a great number of sound works but still despairing on the unimaginative direction it has been taking (The arts are not bad, it's the overinflated way some people think about them that has made them unreal). History is only halfway to fulfill these dreams.
And most of all to Lirio's vision, the most interesting and beautiful sound source, that can cut through almost any amount of electronic modifications.
Para kay Lirio Salvador at sa mahabang panahon ng pagkakakilala at pagkakaibigan, kasama sa Sining.
******
Year VII. Issue 41. Feb. 4-11, 2018. ISSN 2244-3851. DTI Registration No. 01987812. Editor: Richard R. Gappi. aRNO: Exponent of Community Journalism.
