Some Powerful Art

On a drizzly Sunday afternoon, a dozen or so radio art enthusiasts gathered outside the Drake Hotel for Kathy Kennedy’s final Power Up session. Kennedy’s goal was to create a HMMM down Queen Street West by combining a radio broadcast with the human voice. The HMMM was quite fluid; as Scott & I strolled eastward from the Drake, we listened to the hum of our transistor radio commingling with the lingering sounds from the other participants and pedestrians whose paths we crossed.

Renowned for her skills in sonic choreography and public guerrilla art, Kathy Kennedy aims to create situations that provide participants with the “opportunity to situate the self through making sound” in public spaces. Without a “critical mass of people,” though, Kennedy felt that today’s HMMM was not as successful as the one at the Music Gallery last week. According to Kennedy, it lacked the sense of community that the energy of a larger crowd creates.

In the midst of Power Up, Scott & I were lured into the Engine Gallery by a metal sculpture in the window that turned out to be part of a show by Cory Fuhr. The last time I visited the AGO, it occurred to me that most of what I’ve learned about the world – outside of my own lived experience – I’ve learned in art galleries. This thought returned to me as I explored the Engine Gallery, half listening to Scott’s conversation with Steven Schwartz, co-owner of the gallery and a painter himself, about the effect of various frequencies on the human nervous system. From there, the conversation turned to the effects of the large crystals Schwartz uses in the gallery’s display of Olga Zyta Balicki’s jewellery before moving on to a discussion about individual pieces in the gallery.

Just a few doors down the street from the Drake, the Engine Gallery presents the work of an interesting variety of visual artists ranging from mixed media paintings to photographs to jewellery. My favourite pieces were Jeremy Downe’s landscapes created en plein air; Cory Fuhr’s whimsical spider and violin metal sculptures; and a series mixed media pieces by Susan Szenes that looked like a lot of fun to create. I was particularly taken with Olga Zyta Balicki’s silver and pearl necklaces: they were both edgy and elegant. I also enjoyed the interplay of art and image in the some of the photographs in Scott Johnston’s show. The Church is a series of colour photographs depicting Toronto churches in various states of demolition. Some of the photographs were accompanied by verses from the Gospels. I was struck by the way meaning resonated in the juxtaposition of these moving images and familiar biblical verses.

After Power Up, we regrouped in the Drake’s Underground space for a panel discussion by the Deep Wireless artists-in-residence. John Oswald started things off by talking about Power Down, his attempt to change the climate of the Drake by bringing in new sound experiences for its patrons. Oswald pointed to the way constant, “canned” sound overwhelms the listener’s sensibilities. In conjunction with this, he noted the way his All Request Redirect Band also subverts audience expectations by drawing unexpected connections between musical requests and lesser known – and possibly more interesting – alternatives.

Kathy Kennedy’s talk emphasized her fascination with the way that “we hear through the body.” Interested in blurring the boundary between performer and audience, Kennedy finds herself creating opportunities for people to make sound in public spaces in order to “gain a sense of identity and relationship to that space through sound-making.” Kennedy’s HMMM project “gives people a context to listen to their environment in a new way.” Underlying HMMM is a commitment to a more active approach to technology and listening.

Contrasting the parallels between the aural and visual arts, Trevor Wishart commented on the evocative, dreamlike quality of aural landscapes, underlining the richness that a sound artist can achieve by exploiting the uncertainties found in this territory.

After the panel discussion, we moved above ground to the lounge for a Power Down session featuring Laurel MacDonald. I’d been looking forward to experiencing Power Down since John Oswald mentioned it at the artist’s reception a few weeks ago. After we made ourselves comfortable, I began to notice the absence of canned music. I felt a subtle but discernible shift in the environment, almost as though I’d removed a layer of clothing. The Drake patrons continued to talk until the lights were lights lowered and Laurel began performing. While there was still some talking, Laurel’s Gaelic songs, performed acoustically with some stamping for percussion elicited “shhh”s from all around us. According to John Oswald, this Power Down was much quieter than the last one.

Shortly after this, we reassembled in the Drake’s café. This time, I didn’t even notice the absence of canned music; I was too busy anticipating another Gaelic song from Laurel. Aside from my affinity to all things Gaelic, I really enjoyed the guerrilla element of this Power Down and the way Laurel’s singing reinforced Kathy Kennedy’s ideas about the physicality of vocal performances.

Stay tuned: although it’s unlikely I’ll be able to catch Tuesday’s performances at the Drake (instead I'll be buried under a pile of marking), I’ll be at the Radio Without Boundaries performances and workshops coming up this weekend.