Who/Wer (video installation) in Sounds Like Her exhibition at New Art Exchange [curated by Christine Eyene]

Abstract

Sounds Like Her challenges restrictive social constructs of female voices. The Arts Council England funded exhibition curated by Christine Eyene represents new perspectives; re-framing how we experience the dynamic of sound as practiced by women from diverse cultures and gender identities.

The split-screen video Who/Wer, 2017 (‘wer’ meaning ‘who’ in German) is a new development into Stawarska-Beavan’s exploration of the relationship between image, text, language, voice, and urban soundscape. The departure point for this piece is the familiarity and strangeness of a city’s soundscape, as experienced both by an insider and a stranger to the city. In this video, the artist takes on the role of a ‘benevolent stalker’, following Austrian playwright Wolfgang Kindermann wandering across the streets of Vienna. As the two protagonists walk ‘together’ and apart (within a five to fifteen-meter distance), they share a sonic and visual experience mostly familiar to the playwright and foreign to the artist.

The video places this this urban journey against two narratives. On the left screen: black and white slides of Kindermann seen at a distance. The images flicker to the rhythm of his own narration in German. Simultaneously, on the right screen: a fixed shot colour video of the places discussed in the narrative. These seem to be associated the flow of the artist’s voice, telling the same story in English, therefore adding a sense of familiarity to the English-speaking auditor.

The different characteristics of the images emphasize the duality of experiences and perspectives – that of the stranger/follower, and the city’s insider being followed. This duality is also present within the accompanying text, told by a male voice in German and a female voice in English. The language, gender, the tone and the rhythm of voices are different. Interwoven together, they create a vocal sonic ‘tapestry’.

However, the interrupted narrative from one language to the other and sometimes overlaid voices do not always allow for a clear understanding of the narratives in either of the languages. In this respect, like her works on paper, the installation for Sounds Like Her conveys a similar idea of visual or sonic utterance combined with, or obstructed by, a required effort of decoding. As an ensemble, this installation acted as a polyphony, a simultaneous combination of two voices, soundscapes and visual elements, to be experienced through both auditory and visual senses.