installationphoto, speakers, spray paint
Performing Borders III is a work, that reflects upon the materiality and effects of borders. As such, we understand performative and temporal constructions, rather than static architectural markers. Constructions, that – just like sound – are dependent upon continuous acts of actualization (affirmative or negating) to not fade away. Borders seem to function as scores, being reliant on interpreters, be they state citizens, the police, a juridical apparatus, a theoretical framework, history or – in case of the border between art and live – a certain space, the gallery/museum that guarantees certain objects to be regarded as art.
The installation consists of two parts. One part is a thin blue line, crossing the border between gallery space and public space. On the end of the line within the gallery, a small blue speaker is positioned, playing back a continuous spraying-sound from the used spray can. Thus the performative act of the creation of this visual marker is being emphasized. We chose the color blue due to its associative qualities. On the one hand, a thin blue line is a symbol for the police force (wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line). On the other hand it could also simply symbolize a river, crossing national borders. Furthermore we thought of this line – as it seems to come out of the speaker – as a metaphor and visualization of the all pervasive characteristic of sound, always cutting through material and visual boundaries. The other part consists of a sonification of the galleries walls, produced by moving a microphone along them. This act is being documented with a photo, that is put up on one of the respective walls. A small speaker next to it plays back the recorded sound.
2018
