Title: Cyanotype Drawing for Little Gods (Chamber Organ)

Year: 2022

Media: Cyanotype print, edition of 35 + 5 APs + 2 HC

Size: 51 x 61 cm

About the work: Every empty vessel has its own musical note at which it resonates. It’s impossible to make a vessel or a hollow object without creating a musical note. The note is determined by the shape and size of the empty space inside the vessel.

I chose 32 vessels for their specific natural resonant frequencies: they resonate chromatically between the notes D2 and A4.

In this installation each vessel has a tiny microphone inside. The microphones are individually activated by the keys on a midi keyboard (the keyboard itself makes no sound). When the keys are pressed the ambient sound inside the corresponding vessel is amplified and creates acoustic feedback at the exact note of the vessel. In this way we can hear the resonance of the vessels live in real-time, and they can be played like an organ. 

The installation is conceived for the tiny chapel of of the Palazzo of the Conservatorio of Music in Venice for Parasol Unit and the Biennale de Venezia. The hope is that this installation will have rich musical life throughout the six months of the biennale in 2022 before moving on to allow these diverse objects to make new music in new contexts. 

From a tang dynasty dog to my childhood money box, every vessel depicts a human or an animal; and every vessel has a voice. 

The piece develops the ideas created for the Vessel Orchestra show at the Met – Unifying nature of sound and music over time and space – Phenomenally diverse objects, rich and chaotic in their aesthetics, origins and cultural references; but all united through sound and perfectly in harmony with each other – Ancient and unchanging harmonies; played out as contemporary music and constantly renewed by contemporary musicians weaving new music from them – Every performance gives a new  and evolving voice to the objects – and every object in the installation is chosen for its animistic quality as well as for its sound – we expect these objects to have voices because they are formed in the shape of animals and people. This animism is particularly resonant in the context of the chapel; where the formalised religious imagery is complicated by this chaotic and motley ensemble of little gods.