Solstice Arts Centre presents an exhibition titled I am Sitting in a Room, featuring works by Sven Anderson, Chloe Brenan, Karl Burke, Adam Gibney and Theo McNab (d. 2015), curated by Belinda Quirke.

Every vibrating object emits a sound, a magnetic wave that travels, resonates, reflects, and is often absorbed by other bodies.

This exhibition takes its name from Alvin Lucier’s infamous composition “I am Sitting in a Room”, (1969) in which the composer narrates a script and continually re-records each sounded recording, until his voice is gradually replaced by the resonant frequencies of the room. The space between, how we listen, where we listen, and what we hear, is ultimately individually experiential, and species dependent.

Theo McNab’s geometric resonances chime with a sonic landscape in optical and perceptive play, once describing his work “as a frequency so high it is beyond human hearing”. Chloe Brenan uses the theremin as a sensor of forces below human perception in “Different Dusts”, whilst her photographic series “Plosives” encapsulates the sounded voice within amorphous glass vessels. Karl Burke’s site-specific sculpture/sound installation queries the spatial and experiential nature of sound. Adam Gibney’s work acts as catalyst for digesting the philosophical and societal conundrums. Here he explores algorithmic feedback mechanisms through digital experimentation. Commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Sven Anderson draws from the music collection of the late painter Derek Hill, transforming passages from classical and opera recordings into delicate acoustic textures, in which voices and instruments fold back into themselves to reveal hidden resonances.

Two bespoke, curated sound performances will accompany this exhibition. They will include a Cork-based experimental group – Quiet Music Ensemble (led by composer and performer John Godfrey), who will perform works by Anna Murray, Kathy Hinde and Francis Heery, and Xenia Pestova Bennett with Ed Bennett, who will bring us on a journey across a rich tapestry of music for piano and electronics by Ed Bennett, Alvin Lucier and Gayle Young.