Playing with sound sans visuals

A sound is always associated with an image. But what is its identity without a visual? How it can be used as a material by an artist? Seeking answers to these questions, an exhibition on sound titled ‘Auditions: Sound Residency’ is being organised at the newly opened Khoj building in Khirkee Extension.

Five artists –  Abhijeet Tambe (India); Chi-Wei Lin (Taiwan) Malose Malahlela (South Africa), Priya Sen (India) and Rudi Punzo (Italy) –  are experimenting with sound  to create a story by disassociating it with visuals.

To be opened to public from February 3, the residency is looking at low-tech devices to produce different aural modalities by using various media to craft sonic landscapes. All the participating artists have been working on sound art for a long time. For this project, they are creating works that traversed different aspects of sound – from noise to music to conversation  – to engage and disengage the listener.

Charu Maithani, curator of the exhibition, says “This residency would concentrate on  sound as a material for creating an artwork. It aims to look at the impact of a sound without the support of a visual. What kind of a relationship will it have with the audience.”

Using recorded sounds from different locations on Delhi, including Nizamuddin and Old Delhi, Abhijeet Tambe, a musician and sound artist based out of Bangalore, will be layering a story ‘Flying’ of about four minutes.

“I like to work with recorded sound from different spaces. I also use a lot of conversations of people. For this project, using the surrounded type sounds and conversations, I am layering a story,” he shares with Metrolife.

He scores music for film and theatre, and sings and plays guitar for the alternative rock band Lounge Piranha. Abhijeet’s latest project is an interactive sound installation called Blackbox. As a sound art initiative in Bengaluru, the Blackbox project weaves the City soundscape with conversations, stories and city sounds.

Italian Sound artist, sculptor and performer Rudi Punzo has created sculpture ‘The Sound of Light’ that produce sounds. He is interested in metamorphosis and its symbiotic relationship with artistic transformation. Rudi’s work mainly consists of creating site-specific music sculptures out of discarded materials. It remind of one’s dependence on energy sources and the impact of one’s behaviour on environment. At given times the artist will play a big musical installation intermingling its voices with the rhythm created by the robot insects.

In his words, his creation represents, “a performance, an interactive experience and the description of how deeply it may impact the discovering of such a place as New (and Old) Delhi on the creativity of an artist obsessed by sound and noise.”