Review: Beyond the Sound combines sound art installations and visual element
"In Hong Kong ... shared aural spaces are increasingly rare," says exhibition curator Anne-Laure Chamboissier - summing up precisely its value.
This excellent exhibition, funded largely by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, is well timed.
As French curator Anne-Laure Chamboissier explains: "In Hong Kong, where our ears are constantly bombarded by sound, which goes mostly unnoticed, and personal listening devices have become ubiquitous, shared aural spaces are increasingly rare."
Choices of media are expanding while fixed-location cultural venues must be innovative with programming strategies. So it is ironic that "Beyond the Sound" is being held at Comix Home Base, an outpost of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, in a heritage-listed Wan Chai tong lau. It was to be a dedicated venue for comics and animation, but this narrow remit and the building's limitations have necessitated the featuring of exhibitions in a wider variety of media.
"Beyond the Sound" has the listening experience or "sound art" at the exhibition's core, but each artwork by participating French and local artists is also beautifully visual.
Eddie Ladoire's Intimity 4 is a recording of snatched sounds and conversations from the city, which have been "electro-acoustically" composed. Participants listen on headphones while walking around the space; it is an ethereal experience.