Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet
Opening Reception Saturday 5 October at 2pm • This work will be switched on at 4pm
VISUAL is delighted to present internationally acclaimed artist Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet. Presented in the Main Gallery at VISUAL this magnificent sound installation involves forty separately recorded voices played back through forty speakers strategically placed throughout the space.
Cardiff describes:
“While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.
I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.”
Janet Cardiff
Born: 1957, Brussels, Ontario, Canada
Lives and works: Berlin, Germany, and Grindrod, British Columbia, Canada
Duration: 14 min. loop with 11 min. of music and 3 min. of intermission
Sung by: Salisbury Cathedral Choir
Recording and Postproduction by: SoundMoves
Edited by George Bures Miller
Produced by Field Art Projects
Tuesday 11.00 - 17:30
Wednesday 11.00 - 17:30
Thursday 11.00 - 17:30
Friday 11.00 - 17:30
Saturday 11.00 - 17:30
Sunday 14:00 - 17:00