5. Common Themes in work
● Sculptural
● Sound
● Participatory
Julianne Swartz
Sine Body
2017
Blown glass, unglazed porcelain,
electronics, sound generated from objects
Dimensions vary
11. Julianne Swartz
How Deep is Your
2010
PVC and plastic tubing, plexiglas, funnel,paint,
LED lights, record player, mirror, 2-channel
soundtrack
http://www.julianneswartz.com/work_archive/howdeepisyour/howdeepisyour.php
Participatory
Bio
-Born 1967
- Phoenix AZ
-Is now based in New York
-Works with sound, kinetics, and other materials to make sculpture, installations and photographs.
Education
B.A in Photography and Creative Writing from University of Arizona, Tuscon in 1989
Attended the Skowhegan School for painting and sculpture in Main in 1999
M.F.A in Sculpture from Bard College in annandale, NY in 2002
As a contemporary artist, she Better known for her sound installations, but I’d consider her a contemporary interdisciplinary artist due to her wide range of materials and mediums that she uses to create work, for example, In her “Close” Series, Swartz suspends a drop of water from her finger, then photographs the scene refracted through it.
A Refraction comes from optics, a refraction is the change in direction of wave propagation due to a change in its transmission medium. In this case transmission medium is the water, science tells us that light waves travel more slowly through water, this change allows for the light to bend which in turn flips the image according to the shape that its passing through, in this case, the droplet that is a spherical shape.
(Propogate- to spread, the action of widely spreading and promoting an idea)
In her sculpture and installation works, there tends to be an emphasis put on the viewer, by allowing her audience members to particpate,the work becomes activated.
she explores and creates work in a space that allows for shared, collaborative authorship. Meaning that the viewer/ particpant becomes a part of the work, allowing for the focus to be on them and their experience, this within itself adds a new complex layer into the work one experiences.
Her “Close” Series is good introduction to Swartz work due to her wide range use of optics, magnets, lights, mirrors, periscopes and the concepts of space and time that are present in her body of work which has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, New Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the 2004 Biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum.[3] Her awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award (2008) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Art (2010).[1]
Hybrid Periscopes
These sculptural peices jutted out from walls and the floor where the viewer was made aware of themeselves and their surroundings. Using the shape of a traditional periscope, she was able to recreate these scultprures to whch swartz herself referred to as “particpipatory scopes”
In-Fill-Trate, 2004
PVC pipe, plexiglas, mirror, hardware
33 x 7 x 32 inches
An eight-channel sound composition winds through the tapestry woven from wire and speakers. The 12-minute soundtrack is a collage of live recordings from nature, human utterances, and other textural sound.
This was commissioned by IMA in 2008 where Swartz combined the use of pre-recorded particpatns and the delicate minimal forms to creat an immersive aural environment. For this peice she gave detailed instructions to the particpants.
Play video
-Curator megan Lykins reich from the Museum of contemporary art clevland said this in 2011…”Swartz captures sounds that we consider private, those words or phrases we reserve for our most intimate relationships…Disembodying thes personal recordings from source and time is central to Swartz’s conceptual practice. When inserted into public spaces, the private sentiments lose their original purpose and connect directly with the listener, becoming formal artistic elements for interpretation.”
How deep is your was exhibited first at PS1 in Queens and has also been exhibited in MA, and SMOCA in scottsdale, AZ.
In this work, viewers could put their head into a large funnel and hear two songs playing interwoven:
“How Deep is your love” by the Bee Gees
“Love” by John Lennon
The sound could be listened to as it traveled from its orginal source location wich was in the buildings boiler room and travel through stairwells, hallways, and galleries. Here Swarts calls attention to the building, treating it like a body as she called attention to its skeletal structure and rickety insides.
Go to site and listen to clip
When asked why she involves the body through particppation in her work, she responded by saying..
” I’ve had amazing experiences that are purely visual, but I believe that the untapped possibilities of sculpture are in the body. So, activating the body in some way gives an intimate, immediate relationship with that piece. Physical investment, be it postural, quiet listening, or waiting for something to happen, means the viewer is actively participating. I want viewers to develop an intimacy with my work. The work doesn’t happen until they look into, or listen to it, and complete the work”
Site-specific participatory sound installation, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Radio transmitters and sound compositions, custom signage; radio receivers made from cast plastic, electronics, LED lights and speakers
Original soundtracks were composed and sited to interrelate with specific objects and displays in the Jewish Museum's permanent collection. Emitted via radio signal, the sounds were only audible through one of the custom Receiver sculptures. Visitors could borrow a Receiver and hold it while walking through the exhibition. Listening to the Receiver, one could navigate the displays aurally, finding a way to a clear sound signal through areas of static and conflicting radio waves. Brightly lit signs placed in interstitial spaces through the exhibits signified zones of acoustic clarity and stated the name of the composition audible there. The signage was identical to the didactics already used in the displays.
In conclusion, Swartz is a contemporary of our time make work that focuses on the make sound sculptural and actvely allowing her viewres to particpate in her works, making them more personable while creating an ACTIVE EXPERIENCE versus your typical PASSIVE viewing of artwork. She continues to make work that challenge the notion of sound, sculpture, and interaction.
Sine Body, 2017
Blown glass, unglazed porcelain, electronics, sound generated from the objects
Dimensions variable
Produced through the Urbanglass Visiting Artists Program and the Bard Research Fund.
Installation view, The Museum of Arts and Design, NYC
Acoustically reflective materials of glass and ceramic are formed into hybrid shapes that amplify, conduct, hold and release sound. I use a feedback process that reads the air mass in each vessel to locate, generate and record the harmonics of that particular form. There is no additive sound. The objects emit their own ideal frequencies-pure sine tones that resonate optimally in their bodies. In the installation, 12-18 of the vessels play together in a random sequence of intermittency, harmony and dissonance to form a chance composition. The installation is also a setting for performance in which the objects are played live, accompanied by a vocalist.
http://madmuseum.org/events/julianneswartzssinebody
http://madmuseum.org/sonic-arcade-shaping-space-with-sound
https://urbanglass.org/glass/detail/sine-body
