Gordon Monahan
February 9 – 23, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, February 8, 2008 at 7:30
pm
Three new sound installations and a concert of new works for theremin and piano.
Installations:
5th Parallel Gallery
February 5-15, 2008
Opening reception Feb. 8, 5 pm.
Theremin Pendulum
A theremin antenna made of flexible wire is mechanized so that it swings spastically as a chaotic pendulum. This causes the theremin to change pitch according to the swinging motion of the pendulum. The sound produced is multiplied by a delay system so that we hear the sound of 8 theremins at the same time. This is mixed automatically by a computer mixing program, and is then broadcast into the gallery. Also attached to the antenna pendulum is a light that swings with the
antenna, causing shadows to be thrown in the darkened gallery that mirrors the frequency wave changes in the theremin.
Neutral Ground Gallery
February 9-23, 2008
Opening reception Feb. 8, 7.30 pm.
A Very Large Vinyl LP Concstructed in Acoustic Space
Eight loudspeakers are arranged in a circle in the exhibition space. A collage of surface scratches and vintage easy listening records fade in and out, spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise or both directions simultaneously creating an illusion of a virtual vinyl LP spinning in acoustic space. Aeolian Winds Over Claybank Saskatchewan Video and audio tracks documenting the installation of long piano strings at the Claybank Brick Factory in the summers of 2006 and 2007. Long piano strings, up to 100 metres in length, were attached to a chimney and stretched to multiple points along the roofs of long wooden storage buildings at the brick plant. As the wind blew across the strings, aeolian tones were activated in the wires, and these tones were amplified by contact to the roofs of the storage buildings. As the audience walked through the interior of the buildings, they heard changing tones inside the spaces, depending on the listeners’ position
in relation to the points where the strings were attached. In the video (quicktime file viewable from the CD), multiple images are overlaid in cross-dissolves, creating an abstract visual impression of the
installation, architecture, and landscape.
Concert at the Shu-Box Theatre, University of Regina
February 9, 2008
Performance of New Works for Theremin and Piano
