Media Release
For immediate release
May 5, 2005
Aural Cultures explores social dimensions of sound
Aural Cultures
May 7 to June 25, 2005
Opening reception: 2 p.m., Saturday, May 7
Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre
Aural Cultures, opening May 7 at The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery, offers an in-depth examination of the cultural implications of sound. The exhibition will include audio alongside video, sculpture, and site-specific installations. Featured works will highlight the diverse means by which visual artists utilize and critique the cultural practices of sound.
This exhibition is sure to take viewers on an attention-grabbing journey. “To create a relaxing montage from everyday sounds, I have focused on certain sound qualities–space, rhythm, and repetition–to craft unique soundscapes. The pleasure of listening is at the heart of this work,” says contributing artist, Annie Martin, about her work.
Also included in the exhibition is Coming Attractions by Calgary artist, Don Simmons. Coming Attractions is a multi-station audio piece that will be placed in several locations around Glyde Hall at The Banff Centre. Observers will experience everyday life as a movie when passing one of the audio stations, empathizing with the characters when the sound of a screaming string quartet heightens tension, or when a melancholy piano enforces sadness.
Artists featured in the Aural Cultures exhibition are: ARCHIVE (Chris Kubick and Anne Walsh), Jeremy Deller, Kenneth Doren, Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Annie Martin, Christian Marclay, Daniel Olson, Santiago Sierra, Don Simmons, and Su-Mei Tse. Exhibition curator Jim Drobnick will lead a tour of the exhibition on the opening afternoon at 3 p.m.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Walter Phillips Gallery is presenting three free public events including a lecture by Douglas Kahn called Atmospheric Signals as Musical Cosmos and two evenings of Sound Madness featuring live art, performance, D.J., and audio installation. Douglas Kahn writes on the history and theory of sound and art and is a professor and founding director of Technocultural Studies at University of California at Davis. Kahn’s lecture will precede the opening reception on Saturday, May 7 at 1 p.m.
Sound Madness, on Thursday, May 19 and Thursday, June 23 at 9 p.m., will feature new work created in Banff by Sound + Vision creative residency artists.
Aural Cultures opens as part of the first week of Banff Summer Arts Festival activities, which will continue through the end of August.
Downloadable images for are available at: http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/wpg/#aural
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475