Synopsis

O projecto que apresento nasceu de um processo de pesquisa em torno de um sem número de artistas e obras considerados de referência, sendo portanto este um projecto que tem como base uma série de conceitos e teorias que foram essenciais para a sua estruturação.

São então três as referencias principais do projecto, nomeadamente uma corrente artística, a arte conceptual; e dois artistas, Ângela Bulloch e Joseph Kosuth.

Relativamente a estes dois artistas, destaco duas obras que tiveram particular relevância, nomeadamente “To the Power of Four” de 2005 de Ângela Bulloch e “One and theree Chairs” de 1965 de Joseph Kosuth. No que diz respeito à primeira artista que referi, esta costuma trabalhar com três elementos chave: o vídeo, o som e a luz, explorando sistemas pré-editados. Uma constante no seu trabalho é o acto de desconstruir e de desmembrar um todo trabalhando com a sua raíz estrutural, sendo por exemplo muito frequente nos seus trabalhos partir de uma imagem base e trabalhar sob diferentes perspectivas com o seu elemento mais ínfimo, o píxel.

No que diz respeito a Joseph Kosuth, saliento a obra “One and three Chairs”, uma obra que consiste na articulação de apenas três elementos: uma cadeira, a fotografia de uma cadeira e a definição de uma cadeira, sendo estes três tipos de abordagens de um mesmo elemento, que correspondem a três tipos de representações distintas, representações essas que se alteram de cada vez que a instalação é montada.

Tendo como base estas referências, desenvolvi um projecto que assenta em cinco conceitos base: o som, a apropriação, a desconstrução, a manipulação e a reconstrução.
Deste modo, o projecto consiste na apropriação de uma música de Mika Vainio intitulada “Last of Catfishes” do álbum Kantamoinem, uma música extremamente analítica e analógica. Partindo desta música, trabalhei e decompus em diferentes módulos os vários sons e frequências que a compõem, passando depois para uma fase posterior, uma fase de reconstrução da música original, através da compilação dos diferentes sons que a compõem.
Por conseguinte, o som original que inicialmente foi apropriado, manipulado e desconstruído, foi reconstruído sob uma nova perspectiva, através da tomada das diferentes partes como um todo.
Paralelamente ao som, esteve presente ainda um outro elemento gráfico, a descrição escrita da palavra “mute“, não só pela sua relação gráfica com o ícone do Mika Vainio (símbolo de vazio) mas especialmente pela relação que o termo estabelece com as características formais da música escolhida, reforçando o seu carácter analítico.


sounds

space composition







1; 2; 3; 4; 5- surround
6- mute definition
7- DVD

mute



"adj. mut·er, mut·est
1. Refraining from producing speech or vocal sound.
a. Often Offensive Unable to speak.
b. Unable to vocalize, as certain animals.
2. Expressed without speech; unspoken: a mute appeal.
4. Law Refusing to plead when under arraignment.
5. Linguistics
a. Not pronounced; silent, as the e in the word house.
b. Pronounced with a temporary stoppage of breath, as the sounds (p) and (b); plosive; stopped.

noun.
1. Often Offensive One who is incapable of speech.
2. Law A defendant who refuses to plead when under arraignment.
3. Music Any of various devices used to muffle or soften the tone of an instrument.
4. Linguistics
a. A silent letter.
b. A plosive; a stop.
tr.v. mut·ed, mut·ing, mutes
1. To soften or muffle the sound of.
2. To soften the tone, color, shade, or hue of."

in: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mute

music

"'Kantamoinen' is a full length of wonderous, very special music that when heard feels like it was made just for you. Strange, deeply cinematic ambience pieces with the odd track supported by deep bass and padded 808 thuds. Hearing this album and 'Metri' in the last two weeks is making me want to go out and ravenously buy all Mika's previous albums, a masterful turn from a truly incredible producer."

in: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=17448

references




"One and Three Chairs", 1965, by Joseph Kosuth

bio: Joseph Kosuth (born January 31, 1945 Toledo, Ohio) is an influential American conceptual artist. Kosuth studied fine arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1965 to 1967. His work generally strives to explore the nature of art, focusing on ideas at the fringe of art rather than on producing art per se. Thus his art is very self-referential, and a typical statement of his goes: "The 'value' of particular artists after Duchamp can be weighed according to how much they questioned the nature of art."

work: One and Three Chairs, 1965, is a work by Joseph Kosuth. The piece consists of a chair, a photograph of this chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair". Crucial to the work is the fact that the photograph depicts the chair as it is actually installed in the room. The piece holds within it the context of its own display, and thus changes each time it is installed in a new venue. One and Three Chairs is an example of conceptual art.

While the definition, the chair and its photograph change with each new installation of One and Three Chairs, two elements of the work remain constant. These are, 1) a copy of a dictionary definition of the word "chair", and, 2) a diagram with instructions for installing the work. Both elements are part of the concept and bear Kosuth's signature. The diagram and the notes together state that a chair is to be chosen and placed before a wall; a photograph of the chair is then to be taken, enlarged to the size of the actual chair, and placed on the wall to the left of the chair; finally, a blow-up of the (copy of) the dictionary definition is to be hung to the right of the chair, its upper edge aligned with that of the photograph.

The work One and Three Chairs can be seen to highlight the relation between language, picture and referent. It problematizes relations between object, visual and verbal references (denotations) plus semantic fields of the term chosen for the verbal reference. The term of the dictionary includes connotations and possible denotations which are relevant in the context of the presentation of One and Three Chairs. The meanings of the three elements are congruent in certain semantic fields and incongruent in other semantic fields: A semantic congruity ("One") and a threefold incongruity ("One and Three"). Ironically One and Three Chairs can be looked upon as simple but at the same time be a rather complex model, of the science of signs. Looking at the piece, it causes you to ask yourself what's real here. What's real here, is the fact that the definition is real. This being that without a definition, you would never know what an actual chair really is.




“To the Power of Four“ , 2005 Secession, Vienna, by Angela Bulloch

Bio: Angela Bulloch (born 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada) is a London and Berlin based sculptor, installation - and sound artist who is recognised as one of the Young British Artists. She studied at Goldsmiths' College, London (1985–1988) and was included in the Freeze Exhibition, 1988. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997, part of an all-female shortlist that also included Cornelia Parker, Christine Borland and Gillian Wearing.

in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Bulloch

conceptual art

This term came into use in the late 1960s to describe a wide range of types of art that no longer took the form of a conventional art object. In 1973 a pioneering record of the early years of the movement appeared in the form of a book, Six Years, by the American critic Lucy Lippard. The ‘six years’ were 1966–72. The long subtitle of the book referred to ‘so-called conceptual or information or idea art’.Conceptual artists do not set out to make a painting or a sculpture and then fit their ideas to that existing form. Instead they think beyond the limits of those traditional media, and then work out their concept or idea in whatever materials and whatever form is appropriate. They were thus giving the concept priority over the traditional media. Hence Conceptual art. From this it follows that conceptual art can be almost anything, but from the late 1960s certain prominent trends appeared such as Performance (or Action) art, Land art, and the Italian movement Arte Povera (poor art). Poor here meant using low-value materials such as twigs, cloth, fat, and all kinds of found objects and scrap. Some Conceptual art consisted simply of written statements or instructions. Many artists began to use photography, film and video. Conceptual art was initially a movement of the 1960s and 1970s but has been hugely influential since. Artists include Art & Language, Beuys, Broodthaers, Burgin, Craig-Martin, Gilbert and George, Klein, Kosuth, Latham, Long, Manzoni, Smithson.

in: http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=73