steve roden
moonfield, 2003
exhibition: specific objects, museum of contemporary art san deigo (mcasd), california, 2004, curated by stephanie hanor

this was the second version of moon field - the first version was presented in saarbrucken germany at the stadt galerie. the piece was initially inspired by a work by joseph cornell consisting of a bottle with a photo of the moon inside. for this work, i used the sound of yuri gagarin's first transmission from space as my only sound source. the sound was presented through 80 glass bottles with a small loudspeaker placed within each one. the abstract soundscape created with gagarin's voice was playing quietly in the space, filling it with a presence not unlike insects, distant birds, or small motors. my interest was to create a space as evocative and contemplative as a small garden or pond. this installation also considered the sunlight coming in through the museum's only window - allowing the shifts in light and colored shadow to accompany the constantly shifting 8 channel 80 speaker audio work. in the top photo you can also see robert irwin's site specific window piece for the museum. moonfield is now part of the permanent collection of the museum.





to read the statement that accompanied the work click here

moonfield was also featured in the 2003 keherer verlag book resonanzen.

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