2002
10 channel audio work
100 speakers
100 hand cut wine bottles
installation image of the stadtgalerie
saarbrucken, germany;
and the san diego museum of
contemporary art
moon field was an extension of a work called the moon gatherers that i had shown earlier in 2002 at the armory center for the arts in los angeles (a hanging version in a tree), and at gallery e/static in torino (a small floor based version). both of the works were initially inspired by a assemblage by joseph cornell consisting of a bottle with a photo of the moon inside.
for the earlier works i used the sounds of glass bottles being tapped, bowed, etc. – but for this larger version (100 bottles and 100 speakers) i got a little closer to the moon by using a recording of yuri gagarin’s first transmission from space as my only source material.
moon field consists of 100 glass bottles, each hand cut so that a small loudspeaker could sit beneath the glass – allowing the bottles to amplify the sound like a speaker cabinet.
a quiet soundscape (10 channels moving through 100 small speakers) has the presence of a sound field – similar to insects, distant birds, or small motors.
my interest was to use sound and the shifts of natural light coming in through the windows to create a space for sound to exist as a kind of small garden or pond.
because of the 5 large windows in the stadtgalerie space the natural light added movement to the space, similar to the slowly shifting sound.
notes on the piece from 2002:
in the summer of 2000, while teaching a drawing class in paris, i found a souvenir from yuri gagarin’s first space flight at a flea market. it was a 45 rpm audio recording of his first transmission from space – and it was marvelously filled with surface noise, recording problems, electronic beeps, and for me, gagarin’s indescipherable words.
in the summer of 2001 i attended some events as part of the getty center’s tudor-fest; a symposium on the works of david tudor. one of these was a reconstruction of the work ‘rainforrest’ where transducers were placed inside of and on top of everyday objects such as car doors and metal bowls, which acted as resonators (or speaker cabinets). experiencing the work, i felt like a small child marveling at the magical use of such objects to enhance sound.
in december of 2001 i discovered an image of a small assemblage made by joseph cornell called “song title lunar bottle” from 1933, which consisted of a small bottle with a photograph of the moon inside of it.
when i was invited to create a work for the stadtgallerie in saarbrucken somehow these 3 moments and objects became connected as the inspiration for an artwork. it was the visual image of the moon in cornell’s bottle that suggested a speaker – which then set my mind back to tudor’s work and the wondering of what would happen to a sound if i placed it inside of a glass bottle. eventually i wanted the speaker to turn back into the moon – and gagarin’s voice, which had been gathering dust in my studio, began to speak to me once again.
my interest, of course, was not to make a work about gagarin, cornell, or tudor – nor specifically about the moon or the acoustic properties of wine bottles – but to use these connections of inspiration as both a point of departure and a way to impose structural elements upon my working process and finished results – and understanind that these inspirations and ideas are simply the triggers that jump started this work so as to allow the process of making to be able to follow a path of both conceptual and intuitive process.
as with most of my installations (and likewise my paintings, drawings, sculptures and filmworks) – i am interested in the end result existing on its own. existing at a comfortable distance from my ideas and intentions – as a simple and quiet presence that might offer a bit of quiet contemplation.
moonfield is in the permanent collection of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary art in la jolla, california.