Jan St. Werner

acid-metric

19.11 – 21.12.2024
EBENSPERGER
Fichtebunker, Fichtestraße 6, 10967 Berlin

+49 030 20929150 office@ebensperger.net

Three sound-producing objects in three locations.

But rather it is all one location; the sound is present throughout the entirety of the space of the exhibition. These three works each have their own distinct character as regards sound: the dense-spectra drones of Reflector (a detail that sticks with me: a fade out that’s suggestive of the final expulsion of air from lungs, bellows, or bagpipes); the elevated, untiring, unforgiving machinic pulse of Assel (threatening to trigger Diana Deutsch-style aural illusions); and the comparatively lyrical, wildcard assaying of Wolpertinger (mercurial gesture and incident that arguably has the most to say and ties up the three-part assemblage with a bow).

Metal, concrete, wood: a bracing volume level makes the most of this oddly proportioned space and the echoing surfaces of its walls. I find myself rubbernecking to identify the source of a particular sound and realize that what I’m hearing is primarily reflection. (The reflection becomes the source.)

The objects themselves are fully themselves, polished metal or wood painted black, and assuming pride of place. There are no hidden speakers in this exhibition. For an encounter seemingly predicated on the experience of sound, the objects themselves invite close inspection with their subtle assymetries and refusal of parallelism, no two sides the same.

The sound materials, if you must? Until the membrane or horn of the speakers are activated, it’s data. The source is generated via software, engages electronic circuitry, and the speakers then transfer energy to the medium of air, with unique results in a sound environment ever in flux.

—
The moment of exchange
in which it becomes manifest
“the other that you would not want to hide” (JW).

Text by David Grubbs

Thank you Rudy Schmidt, Jan Bernstein, Marcin Pietruszewski