Sound garden, two events two rooms
Sound Garden, Two Events Two Rooms took place in the long and narrow room of the Development Space. It consisted of an arrangement of pears, placed carefully on tiny pillarlike plinths mounted sequentially along two of the walls. Black string was fastidiously pulled taut around nails which formed a broad, geometric pattern down and. along the slightly beige walls and around the pears. At the front of the room stood an old upright piano.
The wallpaper-like patterning of the pears and string alluded to a room, rather than a gallery. It suggested a place of the performative, but of course it was up to the viewer as to how much (if anything) happened. The work also suggested an outside space, that of a garden. The succulent fruits with exotic birds tattooed on their skins, created a stage-like setting in which the walls assumed the presence of trees. The fruit was for visual devouring, while the music alluded to the ambience of bird song.
A period of viewing time before the performance formed the "overture" to Sound Garden. At first, the presence of the piano in the space seemed to exist only as part of the visual installation, as its awkward position at the front of the space did not suggest the setting for a musical performance. The audience had time during this "overture" to notice details such as the tiny birds on the pear skins which were reflected in the intricate engravings on the piano's surface.
After a short time when people had gathered in and outside the space, the music began. There was no announcement, no "hush" that usually anticipates a musical performance, instead people 's voices gradually diminished