Whether by accident or design, artist Zahourie Abdalian has replicated exactly the sound in my head. ‘In Unison’ — a sonic installation of loudspeakers, sine tones, glass vessels, and water — is not without a certain compelling creepiness, like that room at the end of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ but I could not linger. (How does the attendant at the desk not go starkers? Hello OSHA.) Plus, I thought the water in the vessels would be visibly vibrating in sync with the sine tones, but it just sat there.
Audible Spaces presents three recent sound installations that encourage participants to explore the subtleties of listening. Drawing on the critical strategies of minimalism, the artists in Audible Spaces use monotony, seriality and repetition — both visually and sonically — as they consider both what and how we hear.
In the lobby, the contemporary art duo known as [The User] has installed ‘Coincidence Engine One’ an amphitheater-like space filled with thousands of ticking (yay analog) clocks. It chatters and hums in the brain very pleasingly. (In London, The Times has started piping the sound of clattering typewriters into the pressroom. Seems we need a little clicking and clacking in our lives.)
Tristan Perich’s ‘Microtonal Wall’ — the loudest of the three pieces — is over at the Cohen Gallery in Granoff on Angell Street.
Through October 12th, Bell Gallery, 64 College Street, (directions), 401.863.2932
Step inside.