Sound cells-Fridays
[sound installation & photo series]
photo: magdi mostafa
Sound Cells (Fridays)—the second installation in the (sound cells) series of 2009-10—is an abstracted evocation of the artist’s neighborhood as heard on Fridays; a day of prayers, and also a day of household chores and washing up. In the installation, old, worn and sometimes even hand-made washing machines of different makes and sizes (all acquired from homes in the artist’s neighborhood) were timed to spin and whirr at various intervals. The machines were penetrated by standing microphones that amplified their empty rumblings, punctuating the sounds of a Friday sermon emanating from an imposing, vertical, tower-like grid of 30 radio speakers. The sermon was chosen from a series of recordings of Friday prayers made by the artist at nearby mosques over a two month period. The orator describes women as vessels which can be used for procreation, much like the empty vessels spinning in the background—vessels which themselves are imbued with layers of personal and social value, such as technological progress, marriage, and domestic bliss. Sound Cells (Fridays) thus raises a richly complex tapestry of social issues. In addition to capturing the aural character of a particular space, the piece also touches on gender roles in a society at the intersection of religious conservatism and globalized modernity, and the questionable fetishization and anthropomorphization of banal utilitarian objects.
- Ania Szremski (School of art institute Chicago - July 2010)
SOUND SAMPLE:
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