“Muted Situation 1: Muted Classical Quartet” by Samson Young
Title:
- Muted Situation 1: Muted Classical Quartet
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Artist Statement:
In “No References”, two related works by Young quietly (literally) steal the show. Muted Situation #1: Muted Classical Quartet and Muted Situation #2: Lion Dance are two simple single-channel works whose dominant sound-producing constituents are suppressed. This was done “without a diminution in the energy normally exerted in the performance”. As Young writes:
The muting of sound layers does not translate into silence; nor does it equate to emptiness. Rather, the act of muting is an intensely focused re-imagination and re-construction of the auditory experience. It involves the conscious suppression of dominant voices as a way to uncover the unheard and the marginalised, or to reveal hitherto unconscious assumptions about hearing and sounding.
