Laurent Grasso "SoundFossil"
Sean Kelly Gallery
This event has ended.
The title of the exhibition references the seemingly impossible contemporary mythology of “sound fossils:” random recordings of sound vibrations located in objects like pottery or stone. Alternately, in 1964, astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a radio frequency remnant supposedly from the Big Bang while using a microwave receiver known as the Horn Antenna. Grasso’s model of the Horn Antenna, which will be included in the exhibition, makes a connection between the sound fossil mythology and the scientific discovery by the two scientists. This intersection of theoretical hypotheses and fact-based science is the thematic focus of the exhibition.
The main gallery will house the monumental Horn Perspective that won Grasso the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2008 and was later exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in 2009. Horn Perspective is an installation that includes a large-scale projection of a looped 35mm film of a tracking shot along a forest path in which an undefined black swarm moves over and around the camera’s viewpoint. The film’s soundtrack will be heard via large wood and brass speakers that will be installed on the gallery walls. Though the speakers appear to be equipment from a 19th century laboratory, like many of Grasso’s works, their exact origins are unclear.
A provocative new work that will be shown in gallery two resembles an anechoic wall, a device used in modern technology to trap sound reverberation. The sculpture is crafted from copper, a material commonly associated with its superb conductive capabilities. Grasso’s anechoic wall references not just the absorption and/or reflection of sound, but light as well. This interest in light is further explored in the neon works in the exhibition, including the dual-colored Eclipse, which will be installed in gallery one.
Media
Schedule
from September 11, 2010 to October 23, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-09-10 from 18:00 to 20:00