8 hand cut wine bottles
8 channel audio composition
electronics
installation at
e/static gallery, torino italy
this second version of the moon gatherers was created for a solo exhibition at gallery e/static in torino italy. ever since i began to explore the work with speakers in bottles (inspired by a collage object by joseph cornell of a bottle with a photo of the moon inside), i was interested in the different sounds that the speakers/bottles made when they were hung above with the large opening facing the listener, or when they were standing on the ground – so that the listener would hear the sound coming through the small opening at the top.
for the first version, at the armory center for the arts in pasadena – a public space; it seemed ideal to hang the bottles from trees – not only as an aesthetic decision, but because the sound would be a bit louder and would tend to drip like water onto the heads of unsuspecting passers by. for the torino work, and the intimate space of a gallery; i wanted the listener to have to be very close to the objects before the sound could be heard – to create a small reflective pool within the gallery space.
the sound source for the work is a series of 8 channels of acoustic and electronically processed sounds of the bottles being tapped, blown, and played with a violin bow. these sounds were then transferred to 4 channels of 24 minutes running at different speeds so that the piece slowly changes for every ‘viewing’.