Whisper – Murmur – Howl
Installation Project
Framework It all started a few years ago when I came across several sculptured heads lying down all messy in a back yard of an art college my ex-wife attended, just like scraps of junk. I photographed those sculptures first, then took them with me to the studio. Later on I found more of them in other places in Moscow, Tver, St Petersburg, other cities in Russia, and I kept wondering what to do with them next. Then my wife left me, and it all became clear. It came to me from the field of information theories: failed communication.
Treatment The space is rather big, with high ceiling, half-lit. Sculptures – heads and torsos, some found, some made by fellow sculptors – are standing on high wooden pedestals, but one cannot see them clearly at first from the entrance. Movement-detecting sensors with rather short working distance are installed inside the pedestals together with speakers and playback devices. Movement-detecting sensors are connected with directional lights, each light aimed at each sculpture. When the first visitor enters the room, the motion sensor activates light, speaker and playback device in the pedestal of a sculpture nearest to the visitor, and the sculpture starts “talking”. It may ask a question, or propose something, et cetera. As the visitor moves, the second sculpture activates, and so on, and as others enter, all the lights go on and sculptures start talking all at once. What starts from whisper (or a scratch) ends up howling and crying. You cannot reply to any of the voices, you can hardly hear them. It's failed communication.
Mitya Nesterov
Whisper – Murmur – Howl
Installation Project
Framework It all started a few years ago when I came across several sculptured heads lying down all messy in a back yard of an art college my ex-wife attended, just like scraps of junk. I photographed those sculptures first, then took them with me to the studio. Later on I found more of them in other places in Moscow, Tver, St Petersburg, other cities in Russia, and I kept wondering what to do with them next. Then my wife left me, and it all became clear. It came to me from the field of information theories: failed communication.
Treatment The space is rather big, with high ceiling, half-lit. Sculptures – heads and torsos, some found, some made by fellow sculptors – are standing on high wooden pedestals, but one cannot see them clearly at first from the entrance. Movement-detecting sensors with rather short working distance are installed inside the pedestals together with speakers and playback devices. Movement-detecting sensors are connected with directional lights, each light aimed at each sculpture. When the first visitor enters the room, the motion sensor activates light, speaker and playback device in the pedestal of a sculpture nearest to the visitor, and the sculpture starts “talking”. It may ask a question, or propose something, et cetera. As the visitor moves, the second sculpture activates, and so on, and as others enter, all the lights go on and sculptures start talking all at once. What starts from whisper (or a scratch) ends up howling and crying. You cannot reply to any of the voices, you can hardly hear them. It's failed communication.
Mitya Nesterov