Maya Dunietz – Sound Requires a Medium
Curator: Chen Tamir
The Center for Contemporary Art
at the Rachel & Israel Pollak Gallery
at the Rachel & Israel Pollak Gallery
2a Tsadok Hacohen St. (Corner of Kalisher)
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
January 1 – February 27, 2016
The CCA is pleased to present Sound Requires a
Medium, Maya Dunietz’s first solo, large-scale, site-specific, sound art
exhibition. Dunietz is a composer, musician, and sound artist based in Israel
whose work ranges from composing for ensembles and choirs, performing as a
pianist and singer, and creating sound installations. She founded
the acclaimed Givol Choir, an experimental vocal ensemble and is a
member of the renowned band “Habiluim.” Her work has been presented
at venues including the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), Arnolfini, UK (2013),
and the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011). Dunietz has recently been
awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers.
Dunietz works at the intersection of visual art,
music, sound, and performance. In all of these mediums, her practice is
abstract and experimental, intent on shifting viewers’ and listeners’ attention
to the essence of perception. Dunietz is inspired by sound theorists,
scientists and philosophers, such as Lord Kelvin and his exploration of sound,
matter and space, and Pauline Oliveros who coined the term and practice of
“Deep Listening” that aims to connect individuals to their environments and
open us up to one another.
Sound Requires a Medium centers on a
room-wide installation comprising 10,000 intertwined earbuds. Visitors walk through the
labyrinthine structure to take in the dynamic sounds emanating from the earbuds
that come together to create a rich and blossoming soundscape, physically
pulsating from the sheer quantity of musical sources. The exhibition also
includes a series of musical objects made of unexpected materials such as a
mechanical bird whistle, a “talking” wall, a sound work heard through one’s
teeth when biting a straw, and a shaking piano.
The specially crafted pieces and the large
installation are experiential and interactive, with music composed specifically
for them and their architectural surroundings. Each work activates the viewer
in different ways – from biting a metal rod, to pressing one’s body against a
sonic wall, to caressing a shaking piano, and to the impromptu “dance” that is
performed by each viewer as he or she navigates the large earbud installation.
The physical engagement with Dunietz’s work is a
direct extension of her experimental practice as a composer who constantly
stretches the boundaries of the medium, seeking to explore the human capacity
to consume and produce sound in infinitely myriad ways. Inspired by pioneering
musicians and sound artists ranging back to John Cage and La Monte Young,
Dunietz also traces her artistic heritage to the Dada movement through her
reliance on improvisation and interdisciplinary methodologies. She works with
sound as a plastic medium and considers music within a material world. The
result is a captivating project that “resets” the ways in which viewers and
listeners perceive their surroundings.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of
performative events, lectures, and special educational happenings.