Ancestral Songs, two silent 33-minute synchronized and looped HD wall projections
accompanied by 7-minute HD asynchronous stereoscopic loops in viewers with sound
accompanied by 7-minute HD asynchronous stereoscopic loops in viewers with sound
Ancestral Songs explores the idea of immersive realities as both shared and individualized experiences. The installation presents large video projections of expansive pastoral scenes, while handheld viewers hang from the ceiling above several feet from the projection wall. The images displayed in stereoscope through the viewers are interior spaces. In each sets of imagery, hands enter the frame holding hearing aids left by the artist’s deceased relatives, which are cupped to initiate audible feedback. The silent large projections are closed captioned to describe all the environmental sounds the images once contained. Meanwhile, audio emanates from the stereoscopic viewers and bleeds throughout the installation. The work activates an inversion of assistive listening devices as they are used to derive sound in defiance to the ways in which those with deafness can become silent participants in a hearing world. How does the environments we find ourselves immersed in contain or hold sound? How do they hold silence?
Support from ChaNorth and Wassaic Project Artist Residencies
