《Vexation》
Left
Right

關於作品

 

《Vexation》

許方華 (L7-10 Phoebe Hui Studio)
木材、石墨、電動機、電子儀器、揚聲器、導電膠帶、電線、玻璃
48” x 20” x 20” (kinetic), 16” x 19” x 11” (print)

2012-2013

 

藝術家自述

“Vexation” is a musical instrument built especially to play Erik Satie’s composition “Vexation”. Satie apparently instructed that the same music should be played 840 times. I wanted to make a work that demands a longer attention span and cannot be produced and consumed immediately. I am interested in the experience of duration involved in the act of listening to repeated sounds. Repetition is difference, since the same sounds take on a different significance as they are replayed.

 

Inspired by Samuel Biderman’s octave spinet, which is a small and special type of harpsichord that combined keyboard with chess and backgammon board or jewel box, “Vexation” is an electronic instrument that builds upon traditional drawing pencils and woodwork together with modern electronics. I made a moving wooden cylinder wherein I drew marks using pencils of different lead sizes. These pencil marks function as a score. I also designed my own electrical circuit. The contact between the sound circuit and the pencil marks produces audible music. The cylinder can also be seen as a sculptural piece. Its cylinder shape evokes my understanding of vexation - an endless circulation.

 

In “Vexation”, I tried to collapse score and performance: The drawing in itself is the physical material that generates the tone without any human intermediary. The functional circuit is no longer split from the body in which it is embedded. The structure of the music is made clear to the visitor, since the score is displayed as an integral element of the sculpture.

 

I am interested in transforming existing artworks, presenting them using new forms of notation or mechanical instruments, in order to raise the question: is this the same artwork? When does something become a different work of art? Who defines the identity of the artwork? Is this work a new manifestation of the same composition? My main purpose is to raise the question concerning the identity of the artwork across its various physical forms, not to give a final answer to this question.

 

關於藝術家

許方華從事跨媒體創作與研究,作品主要探討文字、聲音與科技之間的關係。畢業於香港城市大學創意媒體學院,先後於英國中央聖馬丁藝術與設計學院完成藝術碩士及美國加州大學洛杉磯分校研讀媒體設計與藝術碩士課程。許氏興趣探索聲音、科技和語言之間的可能性,並超越多學科的界限。她最新的靈感源自電子學、計算機學、文學理論和定量研究方法論。許氏先後獲香港藝術發展局藝術新秀獎、彭博新一代藝術家資助獎、耶魯雅禮藝術獎助金、亞洲文化協會李子潔獎助等等。她曾於不同的地方分享她以研究為基礎的藝術實踐和論文,包括奧地利電子藝術節、ISEA、大都會藝術博物館、麻省理工學院媒體實驗室,洛杉磯哈默博物館等等。

 

了解更多「十年廠出:JCCAC十週年回顧展作品 , 按此>>