“Whenever I enter a space that I am considering working with, whether it is a gallery or museum, a cistern in Italy or a silo in Brandenburg, I call into the space to measure its acoustics. It is an instinctual response. By projecting my voice into a space, I measure that space; through the resonance and echo I can ascertain the volume, scale and depth of that space,“ Susan Philipsz explains her way of working.
Ben Jonson’s poem “Slow Fresh Fount“, in which the mythical Echo laments the death of Narcissusis, is title given to Susan Philipsz recent exhibition. Echo asks her surroundings to join her in grief. It was later put to music in the form of a four-part madrigal. Susan Philipsz has sung and recorded each of the tones of the soprano, alto, tenor and bass, separately, abstracting the tones so as the focus is more on the echo they produce. She has broken the composition down so that singular abstract tones can be heard, as well as fragments of the melody.
The Konrad Fischer Galerie has a particularly resonant acoustic with lots of echoes and reverberations. The sounds from one level are audible on the other. Taking this into consideration Philipsz has assembled a set of oil barrels that have speakers attached to the lids. And on another level she has three large silos suspended from the ceiling. Raw elemental sounds made with her voice are projected from these barrels and silos. The acoustic resonance of the containers is clearly audible and the barrels and silos are different sizes so they have different acoustics. The barrels are arranged in the space so that they appear to call to each other. At some point the sounds overlap and harmonise, creating random patterns of sound that continually shift and draw your attention to yourself in that particular space.
The sculptural installation is accompanied by a set of paintings that have been steeped in a salt solution. Some have fragments of the poem screen printed onto the surface, and some are abstract. The residue of the salt creates random patterns across the surface. They allude to the salt tears that Echo weeps for Narcissus.
With the kind support of
