Urban Songline. The artist explores our relationship to public space and the extent to which we can claim ownership over it. For "Urban Songlines" Hoorn presents translations into music of three public structures and buildings, using sound, image, video and animation, this exhibition serves as a realization of his theories and research, as well as documentation of the process.
GALERIE GABRIEL ROLT is pleased to present URBAN SONGLINES, an exhibition of
recent works on paper, photography and video / animation by Dutch artist
Allard van Hoorn. This will be his first exhibition with the gallery.
Allard van Hoorn explores our relationship to public space and the extent to
which we can claim ownership over it. In life we develop relationships to
our surroundings; to the places in which we work, live, sleep, love, dream;
sites of turning points and great events that develop very specific and
lasting connotations. For 'Urban Songlines' he presents translations into
music of three public structures and buildings. Using sound, image, video
and animation, this exhibition serves as a realization of his theories and
research, as well as documentation of the process. 'Urban Songlines' is a
proposal to the audience: by allowing us to 'listen' to buildings rather
than see them, the work seeks to change our relationship to space.
Van Hoorn encountered songlines in Australia where they are used by
Aboriginals to map the land. In their tone and lyrics, a songline defines
the cartography, spiritual embodiment and ownership of an area of land. By
applying this to urban spaces, van Hoorn is allowing us to review the
relationship we all have to the many spaces in which we exist and yet often
do not own. His songlines allow the possibility of a person visiting a space
they may never have physically visited.
The three songlines in the exhibition describe an empty Philips warehouse, a
gas-holder in South London and the Thames Flood Barrier. These are each
monuments of urban industrial environments that are in a state of
transition; with their original function nearing obsolescence they will soon
be finding new uses for the public or facing demolition. Field recordings
made at each site have been translated into music that encapsulates a sense
of unpeopled emptiness. In the wind and echo one can sense the expansive
scale and in sampled sounds, of foghorns and metallic-bangs, one can picture
the materials and activities.
Van Hoorn has reproduced each songline onto
vinyl - a tangible, physical recording of the music, which can be easily
dispersed, thereby sharing the sites. Alongside the songlines, van Hoorn
will exhibit documentation of his locations in photographs, drawings and
animation. There is also an airtight glass jar which holds an
information-key of the Thames Flood Barrier songline, with the co-ordinates
of its location, engraved along its side. An identical object was thrown
into the Thames, in a performance by van Hoorn, so that it might - as a
message in a bottle - present someone somewhere with this piece of London.
'Urban Songlines' is the latest part of a practice that is playful,
inquisitive. Searching for new and different ways of seeing the world and
our relationship to it, van Hoorn makes his discoveries via translations of
medium, cultures and era. His art is presented not as a final word but as a
part in an on-going discussion.
Allard van Hoorn (Leiden, 1968) lives and works in Amsterdam. He has
exhibited internationally, including shows at Gasworks (London), Stedelijk
Museum (Amsterdam), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), MoCA Museum of Contemporary
Art (Shanghai), Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (Berlin) and The Moore Space
(Miami). Van Hoorn is an editor of HTV De IJsberg and he frequently
organizes panels, workshops and lectures.
Image: Allard van Hoorn, Matchmaker, Inkjet Archival on paper, 90 x 67 cm / 2008
Opening: Saturday 03 July, 17-19.30 hrs
Galerie Gabriel Rolt
Elandsgracht 34, Amsterdam
Wed-sat 12-18 or by appointment
Free admission