Curator’s Statements
czirp czirp @ PARALLEL VIENNA

23.09. – 27.09.2015

czirp czirp is participating in the Curator’s Statements at PARALLEL VIENNA with a group presentation. The artists FÉLICIA ATKINSON (FR), JONÁŠ GRUSKA (SK), ANTONIA KUO (USA), MERJA KOKKONEN (FIN) and STEVE RODEN (USA) express themselves both through sound and visual art.

The selection of artworks and artists approaches is of heterogeneous character. The intention in this exhibition is to emphasize on the plurality of concepts dealing with sound aesthetics.

As the focus in past projects had mainly been on live music performance and sound installations with ephemeral character, czirp czirp now turned to choosing works from a representational angle and addresses the possibilities of visual artistic expression developed through the engagement with sound.

These visualizations of sonic perception are to be seen in relation to the predominantly visual or context based conceptions and attempts to understand art as well as current aesthetic approaches. What unfolds are questions directing to accessibility and distribution of art works, poetics and language as well as a Materialist understanding of sound embedded in the process of artist’s work.

The most significant draw in the present examples is the link to poetry and the usage of language. Both artists Félicia Atkinson and Steve Roden, who are renowned musicians and visual artists branch out to text, sculpture, graphical works and painting and tackle the meaning, rhythm and tone of language.

Steve Roden contributed a series of drawings on exercise sheets from grammar school dating back to 1928. The origin of these papers is Roden’s family history. They are relics of his uncle, who had been considered a child prodigy, a genius, but passed away early in his life. Steve Roden converses with the repeated words in the old spelling and math exercises and develops pieces of concrete poetry in combination with colored drawings. As in previous works the series Almond Horizon emerge from the artist’s subjective conversation with an existing situation or found text.

Félicia Atkinson’s minimal poem Find the Coyote, a series of 25 sheets, is different. Inspired by artist and writer Aram Saroyan and the writings of Carl Andre she develops her language play through hearing. It seems as if she were sounding her environment and everything connected through writing and typography.

Merja Kokkonen, mainly known as experimental pop musician Islaja, left the field of visual arts early in her career and found music to suffice the versatility of her artistic expression better. She has turned to the idea of creating an object in occasion of this presentation.
The Soft Catechism in the words “Music is Mine” states this very clearly.

Antonia Kuo who is an experimental photographer and filmmaker uses sound to irritate liquids during the developing process in the dark room. Sound is inherently part of her creative process. For the present occasion Antonia Kou chose to study the sound of her activities in the dark room. The visual presentation shows a large format exposure as abstract photography, the sounds from the process can be heard online in the compilation on Soundcloud.

Composer and sound artist Jonáš Gruska is adapting on site to the environment of the exhibition space. Gruska, who mainly works with computer and electronic composition, has been engaged in public guerilla-like sound installations that extend the sonic spheres of his drone compositions into the urban landscape. He intervenes the technical infrastructure of buildings and public places using electromagnetic circuits resonating bodies and industrial structures.

Additionally to the presentation czirp czirp has published sound works by the artists as examples and in relation to the pieces shown. Click here to listen.

Tracklist: Steve Roden, transparency (red), 2014, from the Album Flower & Water, 05:01 / Antonia Kuo, Untitled, 2015, recordings from the artist’s working process in the dark room, 05:14 / Merja Kokkonen, Music is Mine (Remix), 2015, 01:52 / Félicia Atkinson, Find the Coyote, 2015, spoken poetry, 04:04 / Jonáš Gruska, Dvere (Site Specific Resonances IV.), 2015, 16:29
Site-specific installation made for VII. Zlín Youth Salon 2015.