Gourd
Earth
Bamboo
Wood
Skin
Stone
Metal
Silk
Liza Lim | composer
Judith Wright | video artist
Satsuki Odamura | koto
Sonorous Bodies is a performance and video-installation work which explores the potentiality of silence (absence) and the dimensions of its touch (presence). Chinese musical aesthetics provide a framework for examining concepts of touch and by extension, taste, smell, sight and hearing. The principle of touch is of vital importance in qin (zither) music where it is considered to be of equal and interdependent significance to sound in the appreciation of music. This emphasis on the tactile and kinaesthetic is intended to confirm the importance of the spiritual dimension of music beyond its physical sounding. Traditionally, qin music is played for oneself or in the company of a true friend (defined as the ‘perfect listener’).
The ‘sonorous bodies’ of the title refer to the Chinese classification of musical instruments by physical material (stone, metal, silk, bamboo, wood, skin, gourd, earth). Each of these materials has a rich network of symbolic associations in which their elemental nature harmonises with forces in heaven and earth. The instrument itself is seen as a conduit for converging lines of force which the musician/listener activates and accesses through touching and listening. Inspired by the code of gestures used in qin music, the artists examine a realm of almost inaudible and invisible vibrations that surround the acts of touching and sounding, each gesture acting as a transient doorway into an imaginary landscape of vast resonances.
The following components form a series of articulated panels which structure the work's physical and temporal space:
1. The projection of eight video sequences in a darkened space. The videos capture a series of elusive ‘moments’ of contact, for instance, shadows falling on to stone and water, breath articulating a flame, or the invisible taste of a paw-paw.
2. An eight-part musical score performed by koto-player Satsuki Odamura. The score is written in traditional Japanese music calligraphy which notates actions and gestures rather than the imagined sounding result.
The work examines conjunctions between an ancient and a modern practice of performance and the possibilities for an intimate embrace or caress between these modes. It gestures toward that rich and intimate zone of experience when one's attention ‘to the moment’ opens up an awareness of how vibrations arise and dissipate.
The collaboration challenges us to explore mirror images of our respective artforms translating concepts of void and silence, gesture and sound. We have evolved the components of our work side by side, focusing on the elusive realm of the resonances surrounding our subject, rather than looking directly at the thing itself. Our collaboration has been a search for the poetry that arises out of the ‘stolen sideways glance’ or the ‘intensely averted gaze’.
—Liza Lim and Judith Wright
Sonorous Bodies
Brisbane City Hall
Installation by Judith Wright 14:00 — 22:00
Performances by Satsuki Odamura 14:00, 16:00, 18:00 and 20:00
ELISION gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Commonwealth of Australia through the Australia Council, it arts funding and advisory body, and the The University of Queensland through the Office of the Vice Chancellor, Professor John Hay.
Sonorous Bodies was originally presented as part of the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial, with the assistance of State of Queensland through Arts Queensland, and the New Media Fund of the Australia Council.
Images by Judith Wright
Koto notation by Liza Lim
Performance photographs by Andrea Higgins
Score
Performance: Satsuki Odamura | koto
Performance: Satsuki Odamura | koto
Performance
Performance
Performance
Performance
Gourd
Earth
Bamboo
Wood
Skin
Stone
Metal
Silk