clare chippendale, chris comer, amanda cuyler, laura hill, tara pattenden, jacqui vial
While much sound art theory seems to suggest that sound is an underdog in the opposition between sound and vision, it is possible to view sound art as a point of crossover, as well as contention, between the two. The matter-of-factly titled 'datum sound show' presented sound works by members of the Brisbane-based datum visual arts organisation in a one-night event held at Metro Arts.
The exhibition demonstrated how sound functions in space. Sound is not readily contained: it fills rooms and spills out beyond their boundaries, often claiming the space for itself along the way. Sound reaches out to the viewer, provoking physical sensation and subjective response. At the same time, the formlessness and intangibility that is inherent in it can tie the work to the particularities of spaces, and make the work vulnerable to them. Sound must operate in the here and now of the space, and compete or cooperate with intrusions of ambient sound or noise. In these respects, the artists were fortunate in having access to a variety of locations within the Metro Arts Building.
The recorded nature of much sound work in some way predisposes sound artists to draw upon, or sample from, the media culture which surrounds them. The work of Clare Chippendale locates itself within this media landscape somewhere between fictional representation and real life, integrating details of the everyday with the detritus of popular culture. Two monitors in the centre of a darkened room display footage from B-grade movies, with a soundtrack of recorded telephone conversations between Chippendale and friends. Rather than the voyeuristic titillation one would expect from such eavesdropping, there is a sense of neutrality, a lack of connection, in