Pae White (b. 1963, USA)
Unsung, 2009

Multiple aspects of White’s installation at Venice Biennale 2009 are interesting from my perspective. What caught my eye first is a massive textile installation in the ceiling – and I am interested in large scale textile works – tick, and I am interested in works that enforce unusual perspective (as looking up, for example) – tick. It is interesting, then, that different sources have been accentuating different aspects of the installation – some have only reported the weaving, others have more focused on the avian references and implied meanings, other still found the chandeliers most notable, etc. So it was almost by accident that I found one report mentioning some barely noticeable bird sounds in the installation that had no birds. Then it took more purposeful search to eventually find a newspaper article suggesting that White had hired “traditional Venetian bird callers” to perform at her show. So here we have a spatialised emulated bird calls – tick #3. Which in its entirety produces a large scale intermedia installation with multiple media that I am also keen to combine in my works – tick #4.

More specifically it is pertinent to my project “Territorial Sounding” with digital emulation of various calls that I am keen to test performing or installing in various settings.