about the artwork
Bricked develops a fascination with systems of communication and possible poetic engagement. Both old and new technologies are manipulated from a concern for conceptual and material references. Bricked derives its conceptual framework from whispering structures, especially those in India. Noisy spaces, a cacophony of sound, where everybody is whispering loudly, testing the walls, such that no-one can be distinctly heard. This renders the whispering space unusable as a pure or private telephonic communication space; the echo overloads and dominates.
The work is part of ‘Camouflage Cultures: Surveillance, Communities, Aesthetics, Animals’, a conference and exhibition addressing two key principles of camouflage - concealment and deception.
the whispers
The work makes reference to a collection of whisperers, an online whispering community. Canadian, Japanese, German and Maori whispers merge and drown each other out, an international echo that resonates from within the cylindrical column’s bricks. The sound source is unknown, multi-dimensional and abstracted, reflecting the online community and it’s absence of physical definition.
A constant is the reading of ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe, floating in and out of the sound work. The segments below also lend themselves to the wall, abstracting into anamorphic code, and inviting viewers to lay down and decode.
”...and the only word there spoken was the whispered word…on the floor…shall be lifted - nevermore!”
catalogue text
Bricked evolves from research into the acoustics of ancient whispering architecture. Communication systems are the subject of this work, in particular—language, code and remembering. This two part sound installation plays with languages that morph from the visible to the invisible. Bricked uses language as a subterfuge, by creating a meta-text that functions as a code. As well as spoken in hushed tones the text becomes anamorphic, a coded disguise or graphic where the convention of text disappears and turns into pattern.
‘Camouflage Seems to be the Only Game in Town’ by Nicholas Tsoutas
