On the East Lawn

"Many Prickly Pairs: Nuptial Soundings," is presented on the green just east of the Arts Center and consists of 16 of kinetic sound sculptures with paper flap-mallets set in motion using subaudio pulses. Sound fragments from 3 wedding ceremonies, one from the 1960s and 2 from the early 1990s, when the Arts Center was Trinity Lutheran Church, are mixed in with the subaudio tones (seismic rates) to produce a chorus of sung, spoken, played and live percussion sounds. Each tube is enclosed in a circular fence and held stable by thin dowels which seem to pierce the column like arrows.

The Tube Tops were first developled in Prague for an installation titled "The Odradek Complex." The Hillsboro variation uses 8 pairs to create a choir of intertwined percussive overtones which continuously make and remake the sonic landscape. Because of their Odradek-like features (Kafka's mysterious, impish-like character), the Tube Tops are easily anthropomorphized into a chattering ensemble of vocalists, an effect enhanced by utterances and tones emanating from the base of the tubes.

The installation has no intended meaning even if it may be quite meaningful as interpreted by individual patrons. My intention is to work playfully with interesting materials, sculptural and compositional, and to solve difficult problems while not insisting on a fixed perspective. It has long been my experience that meaningful art most often rises out of that which is meant to mean nothing at all. Even so, I will readily admit to using volatile materials which, in this case, are the sound snippets from 3 Trinity Lutheran weddings. Yet, until I observe the finished installation on the green west of the Cultural Center, my own and unavoidable interpretation will remain aloft.

Using fixed symbols is problemmatic as it is often a cover for a dearth of ideas, a symptom of imitation and poor problem solving and, most of all, elitist in the bullying sense. Reactionary work is often cloaked as such with the subtext that it is only accessible to those with special intellect and status. It is high octane for narcissism and for this reason, I do not often read the program for contemporary art and music presentations preferring an unfiltered introduction. In so doing, work damaged by arcane and insecure notes is sometimes resurrected by a imposed objectivity.