Nell, Let There Be Robe (2011). Courtesy of the artist, RoslynOxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Station Gallery, Melbourne.
In ‘The Power of Music’, Oliver Sacks describes the intense, historical and near-universal power of music to effect trance states. ‘Trance – ecstatic singing and dancing, wild movements and cries, perhaps rhythmic rocking, or catatonia… culminating in profoundly altered states of consciousness… has been documented… and experienced by many thousands of people whether in concerts, drum circles or meditation – [and] has been used by various religions for millennia’, Sacks contends.
Sacks’s article captures the focus of Transcendence – an exhibition presently showing at Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, Melbourne. Transcendence showcases three major works by the artists Nell, Angelica Mesiti and Aura Satz who all explore ‘altered consciousness and the spiritual dimension of music’.
Nell’s Let There Be Robe (2011) is an installation which examines the cult of fandom, devotion and the potential for transcendence through sound, mobilising a humour that provokes its audience without being didactic. A mannequin with outstretched arms shrouded in ecclesiastical robes made from fan t-shirts also serves as an altar, a metaphor for the artist’s devotion to the band AC/DC. Crucifixes of varying sizes made from drumsticks, paint brushes, palate knives and other art/music memorabilia cover the surrounding walls. These symbols from Christian liturgy encourage the viewer to reflect on the devotional and obsessive power of music.
Despite its large screen, Rapture (2009), a video work by Angelica Mesiti, has an intimacy that engages the viewer on a more visceral level. By eliminating sound from her film and slowing the motion, the viewer’s attention is drawn to the pulsing, hypnotic rhythm of the crowd at a rock concert. A close up of an ecstatic expression, a gaze that speaks of an experience beyond words, sweating bodies swaying to a beat all their own. Oblivious to the crowd, the heat and the rain, the concert goers are devotees to their idols and the power of the music.
British artist Aura Satz’s Sound Seams (2010), is a film created during an artist residency at the Ear Institute, UCL, London, and explores transcendence through optical and auditory repetitions. Recorded on to wax cylinder and acetate discs, Satz has layered spoken word and music with flashing, revolving, rotating abstractions and anatomical images. Reference to Rainer Maria Rilke’s text Primal Sound (1919) is interwoven through the many layers of image and sound while a ‘phonograph needle plays the coronal suture of a human skull’. A complex, absorbing, haunting and ethereal work, this film requires a number of sittings to fully experience its cerebral and visceral layers and associations.
A meditation on the transformative experience of music, Transcendence is the kind of show that hovers in one’s consciousness long after exiting the gallery space. Well worth a visit.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Transcendence: Nell, Angelica Mesiti, Aura SatzGertrude Contemporary, 200 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
www.gertrude.org.au
13 March – 17 April
