Constellations

In Thing-Like, Jon Tjhia has created a suite of 'exercises' – basically analogous to piano études, or studies, for edited sound works. Taking Walter Ong's preoccupations with the 'immersive' and vital nature of oral culture as a point of departure, these pieces tease and critique the heavy burden of speech and its value: as social currency, blunt instrument, monetary resource and point of connection.

“This piece comes out of a desire that I've had for a long time to map out

the damage to my vocal cords. As a kid, I used to scream a lot and throw a

lot of tantrums and I think that might have caused stress to my vocal cords

and that's why I have the voice that I have right now. And although I

really like my voice, I can't actually sing very well. I have a really

limited range. And so I wanted to speak to a vocal coach and do a vocal

lesson to see what my voice could do.”

~Aliya Pabani

Constellations returns on October 25 to Dec 2 with Resonant Bodies – an

online exhibition and short season about the interactions between bodies

and their environments. It features original works by:

Aliya Pabani

Chandra Melting Tallow

Cheldon Paterson

Kaija Siirala

Jon Tjhia

Phoebe Wang

We asked these artists to create works in response to this provocation by

Walter Ong:

"Sight isolates, sound incorporates. Whereas sight situates the observer

outside what [they view], at a distance, sound pours into the hearer."

“Whisper Study started out as an exercise in exploring basic tape

techniques in the studio, using the whispered voice as sound material. It’s

based on the sentence "When there is no sound, hearing is most alert", a

quote from the Indian mystic Kirphal Singh in Naam or Word. The content of

that sentence appealed to me. I thought a lot about it and then decided I

was going to whisper that sentence. I ended up with this very quiet

recording of my whispered voice. In doing this, I was challenging myself,

because whispered sounds in an analog studio create the issue of hiss and

added noise.”

“What I create through sound design is a false representation of nature,

but a constant reminder that it exists, because you're like ‘oh shit this

room, no one's going to believe this room if there is no air and room

tone.’ So you have to put all this stuff in to sell the room. You're always

walking a fine line. While making this piece, I thought a lot about where

my urge to recreate this moment at Point Pelee really came from. What

evolutionary need does it serve?”

“I explored holding and responding. I explored the possibilities of sound

as a facilitator and communicator of memories, embodied and expressed. I

explored themes of death, displacement, collective memory, and personal

stories. These themes were informed by memories that were shared to an

online portal – those stories of place and belonging were gathered by

L&NDLESS and were used to create an immersive performance-based

installation.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of escape and bearing

witness. And I keep coming back to that saying, “wherever you go, there you

are.” This piece began because I wanted to document my trip to Iceland with

one of my close friends. We booked it on whim after a breakup. We spent 10

days driving the country during a wintery March in 2018. It was an escape

and a chance to exist outside the routines of home..“

“This piece is about the tension between experience and the impulse to

record it. The two, I believe, are incompatible. What happens when the

experience you want to record is another person? How does this interrupt

the relationship, or improve it?”

In a medium where the unfurling of an idea is often synthesised and made

neatly linear, James T. Green’s piece offers a welcome unending. In perfect

tense, “I’ve always felt this need for control”, is a musical refrain with

a psychoanalytic spike. The ‘cut ins’ of conversation between James and

another person who, from his explainer we learn is his partner, are

positioned above a muffled or partially muted version of the motif.

“This piece sounds unheard and repressed voices in our society. Behind the

laughter of children playing, we can hear the solemn chanting of a lost

Roma woman walking the streets of Barcelona. Violet Witt’s sung poem “All I

am is a woman" explores the incongruence of being read as a woman, when

experiencing a far more complex relationship with gender. The last part of

the piece is inspired by another poem by Witt in which they write of taking

action rather than only thinking, n order to heal and co-create a more

inclusive world.”