'Persistent Silence' Proposal

After reading the brief on persistent silence, I began thinking about the audience participation within the gallery space. Is silence necessary for an audience? Is noise or broken silence disruptive or can it help the audience engage with the work?

Pondering the need for silence or the lack of, interrelating to the audience’s experience, I began to research the Stanley Picker Gallery space.

My initial idea was to alter the gallery space, perhaps shifting the height of the ceiling, therefore controlling sound waves, echoing etc and enhancing any sounds (other artworks and the audience’s footsteps etc.

I then began investigating how to remove sound, and how difficult it would be to create an anechoic chamber, a space where sound is instantly absorbed. I quite enjoy the idea that a sound recording device could be placed into a vacuum, where sound cannot exist and therefore become dysfunctional.

After researching non-visual art in gallery spaces Tue Greenfort’s work titled ‘Exceeding 2 Degrees’ had a strong impact on me, and reassured my concerns in making conceptual work.

Greenfort raised the temperature of the air conditioning in the Sharjah Art Museum by two degrees for the duration of the Biennial. He taped clear plastic across the opening of his exhibition space, creating a bubble that appeared to inhale and exhale with the pressure of the museum’s air conditioning vents. . The visual aesthetic of the plastic sheeting prepares the audience for the work and I feel that this makes the audience more aware of a change within the space and therefore takes the subtlety of the piece away.

I propose to change the gallery space in a way that will be subtle yet immediately noticeable to the audience, using the existing features in the space. This change will also be non-visual, but rely heavily on the audience’s other senses. I’m not sure yet if this change will be pointed out to the audience, or if it will rely on their own awareness.

I intend to also exhibit a sound piece that cannot be heard, as it will be in a vacuum. The sound piece playing will be a song by New Order, titled ‘Your Silent Face’

“Sound formed in a vacuum may seem a waste of time, it's always been just the same, no hearing or breathing, no movement no lyrics, just nothing”

By Kat Johnston