Exhibition: Florian Hecker at Tramway
It's been a few weeks since I went to see this show at Tramway in Glasgow's southside but I can't stop thinking about it so I figured I'd write my thoughts about it here for all of you to read and agree or disagree with.
The show was on from 26 May - 30 July, but if you didn't get a chance to catch it then I'd definitely recommend keeping an eye out for German artist Florian Hecker's work in the future - it's not very often that you get to experience sound art pieces like this.
Upon my initial walk into the room I won't lie, I got very very excited. My final show at art school for my degree was a sound installation so I'm already a massive fan of this art form and medium. That being said, Hecker's work here is not an easy listen, at times almost painful on the good ol' ear drums, - and yet I still wanted to stick out the full length of the piece which is 24 mins and 20 seconds.
The visual aspects of the show consisted of numerous box shaped speakers hung from the ceiling in a systematic grid-like formation all at equal height - around head height for obvious reasons. The speakers are then separated by hanging horizontal acoustic panels which were grey on one side and a forest green felt on the other.
Despite their obvious purpose for helping to deflect the moving sound from certain directions, I have to admit they're kind of ugly... But maybe they're purposefully ugly to ensure you're really just listening to the work rather than being distracted by some pretty separators? I'm not sure about that one...
The sound piece itself consists of four pluriphonic computer-generated digital sound pieces synced up in perfect unison to play at the same time, creating a strange kind of conversation in computer sounds and dial up tones. It's a strange thing to experience, but you end up chasing the sound around the room as it moves constantly from one place to another.
I honestly felt like a little kid at a strange art playground, playing tag with something intangible and uncatchable, and it stayed exciting for the first full listen - new sounds being introduced and bounced in different directions all the time.
When the piece fell silent it was a strange feeling. Without the sound the room just felt so empty - the visuals really didn't excite or matter... perhaps proving my point earlier that the acoustic panels are purposefully ugly? I waited...and waited...and finally the piece started up again, filling the room with the unnatural sounds of our digital age. But somehow it wasn't as exciting on second listen - in fact I didn't even make it through a full second sitting! Like I said, it gets to the point of unbearable...like the old dial-up boxes from the nineties are trying to come back and get you for ever updating to broadband and leaving them behind.
Overall I'd say I enjoyed the show. It really isn't often you get to experience sound pieces on this scale in a venue like Tramway despite their growing popularity, and to be honest if there's another Florian Hecker show on in the future then I will definitely go just to experience that momentary relapse into childhood again - running round trying to follow the sound.
Let me know in the comments if you made it to the show before it finished and what your thoughts on it were!
-m