“Current Place” is a two-room audio-visual installation that speaks to themes of stillness, incremental change, and distance. In the large room, six speakers positioned in two triangular shapes use the floor and walls to diffuse the sound creating a slowly changing array of ringing piano strings magnetically activated by an electronic bow. The sound is inspired by the rich color frequencies, transparencies, and shifting daylight within the room’s projected installation. Here, 35mm slides project a series of abstract folded forms, each created by moving a camera with an open shutter. The sixteen slides advance every 8 minutes and 13 seconds—the length of time it takes light to travel from the sun to the Earth—creating a patient, rhythmic clock.
The adjacent sun room contains a Harmonic Clock, also marking 8 minutes and 13 seconds, based on the singular Harmonic Series metallophone that West Coast composer Lou Harrison built as a teaching tool and later bequeathed to percussionist William Winant. The sound traces a line and square of sunlight, shaped by sculptural interventions over the room’s windows. An old PA speaker, grabbed from an abandoned public swimming pool in Minneapolis introduces another layer of place and history, recalling the fragile abundance of water that surrounds us. Across both rooms, projections, sound, and sunlight shift gradually over the course of the day and night, enfolding the space into the work’s evolving rhythm.
