reverb

Music as both inspiration and conent in contemporary art

curated by Max Presneill and Daniel Rothman

Featuring: Tyler Adams, Steve Bankhead, Tim Bavington, Juan Capistran, Graham Dolphin, Sean Duffy, Martin Durazo, Deanna Erdmann, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon, Kio Griffith, Mineko Grimmer, Martin Kippenberger, Gil Kuno, William Leavitt, Adam Miller, Dave Muller, Andy Ralph, Steve Roden, Marina Rosenfeld, Ed Ruscha, Andrew Sexton, Matt Stokes 

Music and Art have been very natural bedfellows for some time now. The rise of Rock and Roll especially has seen musicians find their identity in art schools, developed their personalities on stage in front of art students and artists have adopted the R&R rebel outlook as a natural extension of the art outsider position. Both have fed off each other to the delight and sometimes shock of the public at large. There is an old adage about all artists want to be rock stars and all rock stars want to be artists. I believe this to be fundamentally true for many in both camps.

When considering the scope of this exhibition several immediate problems came to mind. The initial impetus for the show was based in mute art works that explicitly trace their development in music – mostly pop music at that – and which exclude the audio referent in favor of the visual.

Foremost among these questions then was the position within the show for art works that actually make sound within the parameters of the project.  How do they relate to the theme or does the theme expand into more difficult territory…. We decided to enlarge the scope and to embrace the uncertain and problematic aspects that were engendered by this approach.

These sound works which might reference music, but not necessarily so, and can be interpreted as musical in some open sense, have a strange and questionable relationship to the silent works in this exhibition – one that we feel no obligation to find solutions for, or easy answers to, for our public but which we instead open for a general discussion.

Of course the next questions are: when are these sounds music, as opposed to noise, and where is the line that differentiates the two? And, if the interpretation of sound and music is extended: when can the ‘mute’ works be seen as emitting something that might be considered ‘sound’?

My fellow Curator on this project, Daniel Rothman, sidled up to the parameters of our understanding via the world of sound art and which forced upon my thinking a welcomed need to address some of the issues that arise in describing and then selecting appropriate works for the exhibition. It also helped that he was such a pleasure to work with given the demanding circumstances that accompany new ideas and ways of formulating responses. My hope is that a somewhat wild cacophony of sound, visuals and ideas will reflect a complex and interwoven world which is befitting of the practices of both areas and the essential engagements that the artists themselves find in both arenas of attention. A deep and abiding love for both seems the commonality of the exhibition Reverb. For all its rambunctiousness I hope the sights and sounds provide the audience the same thrill as we had in compiling this playlist.

Max Presneill

Online exhibition: Savage Sentimentality. Josh Dildine, Raymie Iadevaia, Cole James, Quinton Jones McCurine, Annelie McKenzie, Jason Ramos, Anna Rodriguez, Jason Stopa, Emily Sudd, Grant Vetter. Curated by Steve Hampton