Siren is a sound installation, and it is a light installation too but only after all the lights in the room go out. The whole installation is composed of 22 machines powered by electric motors. For each machine, there is a metal tripod on the bottom with a metal stick on top spinning like two arms. There is one siren and one small red spot light attached on each end of every arm. While the two sirens on one arm are same, each machine is attached with different sirens.
I was the first to arrive in the theatre. An usher explained to me that all the audience would be taken onto stage behind the curtain, so it didn't matter where to sit for the moment, and I was warned in advance that nobody would be allowed to enter or leave throughout the 45 minutes of performance, so I should take care of all my personal business before the performance. Before the performance started, an usher read a statement from the artist, in which it says please don't touch the installation because it's very dangerous. Then we were directed onto the stage. After all the audience had entered the room on stage behind the curtain, Ray Lee and his partner started all the machines one by one. The arms started spinning at different speed and sirens started singing different tones.
I was intrigued by those tripod machines as well as Ray Lee and his partner. They wore dark gray suits in very thick and raw fabric, looking like cavement playing with technology. The technology is really not high, but very basic physics. They have little expression on their face. They walk around those tripod machines gracefully, like well-choreographed dance (I'm sure it's because they've practiced many many times), having their hands in the front of back so that they wouldn't hit the machines. The somewhat rusty machines had their own rawness too.
Like everybody else, I walked around the whole installation setting to listen and observe the difference. The sirens on one side tend to be lower-pitched than the other. The very first siren Ray Lee started sounded like Scottish Highland bagpipe. After listening to 44 sirens for a little while, I started having a minor headache. Just as I wonder where the performance was going, all the lights in the room were out, leaving the red spot lights creating beautiful red circles in the air as they were spinning.
I didn't know the red light has such exciting mission. I had thought they were just signal lights to show whether the sirens were on. I was immediately intrigued by the fascinating spectacle. Ray Lee and his partner adjusted something and all the arms started spinning faster.
The performance came to an end as everything was slowly turned down. One great thing about the performance is that you get to see the whole process of opening and ending.
It is one of those shows that make you wonder does one have to be a scientist before s/he becomes an artist nowadays. I left the performance feeling like an earth woman whose mind had been intervened by aliens. it's quite an interesting delight.
I watched some youtube videos of the show, really phenomenal! Nowadays you can do so many cool things with LED lights. Art and science are integrated at some point since the making of art usually involves a lot of technology.
ReplyDeleteyeah, and the meaning of art more and more involves how the art is created instead of what it looks like after it's done.
ReplyDeleteoh i really enjoyed this work and was excited that it was something more interactive. i got so hypnotized with certain tons and the lights just drew me in even further. I'm so glad that someone is doing work like this and am glad that i got to see it!
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