SUSAN PHILIPSZ | TATE BRITAIN

The grand space of the Duveen galleries, empty but for the melancholy sounds of 'War Damaged Musical Instruments'© Susan Philipsz - Installation shot by J Fernandes, Tate Photograph

Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries are currently filled with a hauntingly beautiful sound installation by Susan Philipsz (main picture). The Scottish artist won the Turner Prize in 2010 for a sound piece that didn’t really work at the Tate. Intended to be heard under the bridges spanning the River Clyde in Glasgow, the recording of Philipsz's fragile voice singing sad folk songs was largely drowned out by ambient noise.

This time, though, she has been able to design the installation especially for this awesome space, which stands empty for the occasion. A central line of speakers hanging from the ceiling is augmented by others attached to pillars to create an evocative 3D soundscape. Notes from “The Last Post”, familiar from Remembrance ceremonies and military funerals, are played on brass and woodwind instruments damaged in battles over the last 200 years.

The oldest are two bugles – one from the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, found beside the body of a 14-year-old drummer boy, and another from the Crimean War of 1854, blown by William Brittain of the 17th Lancers to sound the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava. The most recent – a keyed bugle and two transverse flutes – were found in the Alte Münz Bunker in Berlin in 1945.

(Pictured below right: Klappenhorn [ruin])

Philipsz was curious to see what sounds could be elicited from these severely battered relics, all of which are housed in British and German military museums. On video, one can watch various musicians attempting to play them, often producing little more than the sound of their own breath being funnelled through mangled tubing. “I am less interested in creating music than to see what sounds these instruments are still capable of”, Philipsz explains, “even if that sound is just the breath of the player as he or she exhales through the battered instrument.”

Watching a young man put his lips to a crumpled instrument is a moving experience; it makes one aware of the damage that weaponry can inflict on metal and flesh and brings into sharp focus the moment when the original player was probably killed or wounded. But it's the sounds themselves that are the most evocative. They travel round the empty space paying melancholy tribute to all those who lost their lives. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, a programme of events marking the centenary of the First World War, this wonderfully restrained piece would certainly have deserved the Turner Prize

Susan Philipsz: War Damaged Musical Instruments at Tate Britain until 3 April 2016

SOUNDSCAPES | THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Hear the painting. See the sound.

We are very proud to have been asked to supply Leyline speaker cable for the forthcoming exhibition at The National Gallery.  We would also like to thank Bowers & Wilkins for recommending Chord Company cables to the organisers.

‘Soundscapes’ has commissioned musicians and sound artists to select a painting from the collection and compose a new piece of music or sound art in response. Immersive and site-specific, the experience encourages visitors to ‘hear’ the paintings and ‘see’ the sound.

8 July – 6 September 2015

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN

Sainsbury Wing Exhibition
Daily     10am–6pm
Fridays 10am–9pm

More info and ticket bookings here

The artists involved are:

Nico Muhly is a composer of chamber, orchestral, and sacred music, as well as opera and ballet. His work includes commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, New York City Ballet, St John’s College, Cambridge, and Wigmore Hall. Muhly’s chosen painting is The Wilton Diptych (about 1395–9).

Susan Philipsz OBE is a Turner Prize-winning sound artist. Known for her installations that explore the relationship between sound and architecture, she has been presented at institutions across the world from MoMA to the Sydney Biennale. Philipsz’s chosen painting is Holbein’s Ambassadors (1533).

Jamie xx is a DJ, music producer, and member of Mercury Prize-winning band, The xx. His producer credits include collaborations with Drake, Rihanna, and Alicia Keys as well as ‘We’re New Here’, his reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s last studio album. Jamie’s debut solo album ‘In Colour’ was released in June. Jamie’s chosen painting is Van Rysselberghe’s Coastal Scene (about 1892).

Gabriel Yared is an Oscar-winning film composer, whose work includes the scores for ‘Betty Blue’ (1986), ‘The English Patient’ (1996), ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ (1999), and ‘Cold Mountain’ (2003). Yared’s chosen painting is Cézanne’s Bathers (about 1894–1905).

Chris Watson is one of the world’s leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena. He won BAFTA Awards for David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ and ‘Frozen Planet’ BBC series, and has worked on other major film, radio, and TV projects. Watson’s chosen painting is Gallen-Kallela’s Lake Keitele (1905).

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are internationally renowned installation and sound artists. Based in Grindrod, Canada, the duo incorporates audio tracks with installations to create three-dimensional spaces with sound. Cardiff and Miller’s chosen painting is Antonello da Messina’s Saint Jerome in his Study (about 1475).

MODERN ART OXFORT | SUSAN PHILIPSZ | YOU ARE NOT ALONE

SUSAN PHILIPSZ
YOU ARE NOT ALONE

31 October - 3 December 2009

Open: Tuesday to Sunday 2pm – 5pm

Radcliffe Observatory
Green Templeton College,
University of Oxford,
Woodstock Road,
Oxford OX2 6HG,
United Kingdom

The Radcliffe Observatory, Green Templeton College, Oxford
Photography by Mick Scott 
This autumn Modern Art Oxford presents a new work by the Berlin-based artist Susan Philipsz, entitled 'You are not alone', specially commissioned for the Radcliffe Observatory, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. Built in the 18th century, the Radcliffe Observatory was modelled on the Tower of the Winds in Athens, a first-century BC clock tower embellished with sundials and crowned with a weather vane. Taking the original function of the building as her starting point, Philipsz has developed a new sound work that, with remarkable potency, engages with the uniqueness of this historical site.

In her work, Philipsz recalls Guglielmo Marconi's suggestion that sounds, once generated, never die; they fade but continue to reverberate as sound waves around the universe. A pioneer of radio technology later used in radio telescopes, Marconi may have been driven by this thought to investigate the potential of wireless telegraphy; to literally tune into the universe. In her evocative new commission, Philipsz elicits something of the existential and philosophical concerns present in Marconi's proposition and in the nature of the Observatory itself, as metaphorical frontier to the stars.

The artist has recorded herself playing radio interval signals (brief musical sequences typically played before or during breaks in radio transmission) sourced from around the world on vibraphone. In a new departure for the artist, Philipsz will for the first time use radio transmission as the audio source for her work. Four distinct recordings are broadcast from separate FM transmitters on the rooftop of Modern Art Oxford to receivers, placed at the Observatory, which pick up the individual transmissions and relay them to visitors through four speakers on the inside. Adding a distinct sculptural device in her use of time and space and the physical journey of sound across the city of Oxford, visitors to the Observatory will experience a lament of sound, which is given a distant, ethereal and haunting quality by the use of the vibraphone.

This commission has been made possible through the generous collaboration and support of Green Templeton College and is the first in a series of three proposed commissions for the Radcliffe Observatory.

A publication documenting the project with an introduction by Michael Stanley and text by Jörg Heiser will be later available from Modern Art Oxford.


Visitor Information
Open: Tues – Sun, 2pm – 5pm
Radcliffe Observatory, Green Templeton College, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HG, United Kingdom

Free admission

Suitable for ages 12+
No wheelchair access. For access enquiries please telephone +44 (0)1865 722733 in advance of your visit
EVENT

Artist in Conversation 11.30am Saturday 31 October
Susan Philipsz in conversation with Michael Stanley, Director of Modern Art Oxford at the Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ.
Booking essential on +44 (0)1865 813800.

http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk