Category: Specialising and Exhibiting: Sound for Screen

Susan Philipsz

In her 2012 work, ‘Study for Strings’, Philipsz marries a deeply moving historical research project with haunting spatial sound diffusion, exploring the life and death of Pavel Haas. Haas was a Jewish Czech composer killed in Auschwitz in 1944, who composed ‘Study for String Orchestra’ by force for a Nazi propaganda film morbidly proclaiming the peaceful relaxation of the Thereisenstadt Ghetto; what was effectively both a transit facility for Jews being sent to death camps and a pestilent, disease-ridden prison.

Originally, as part of the dOCUMENTA (13) exhibition, Philipsz deconstructed ‘Study for String Orchestra’ and diffused it around the area of Kassel Hauptbahnhof. Yet in 2023’s ‘Study for Strings Sokol Terezín’ Philipsz brought the isolated cello and viola sections to Thereisenstadt, where Haas’ original work was performed before his murder. She films the diffused installation as her rearrangement of Haas’ music eerily resonates throughout the building.

It goes without saying that my piece I have developed does not comment on awful events like the Holocaust, but Philipsz’s usage of site-specific sound diffusion is inspirational. It casts long shadows throughout history, rendering an elegant commentary through sound. It’s bridging the gap between the gallery space and the space crucial to the context of the work, is also a quality I would wish to explore in the future, it could greatly inform my approach to installation practices.

I find the genius in this work, and an emotive use of spatial sound, in Philipsz bringing the music back to the site of its origin, haunting it. It’s not quite historically redemptive, more an act of mourning. Spatial sound works can often be solipsistically, technologically driven, but ‘Study for Strings Sokol Terezín’ is a remarkable application of selfless diffusion work, drawing out a reflective, reclaiming of dark history.

References:

Rhodes, D. (2023) Susan Philipsz: Separated Strings. Available at: https://brooklynrail.org/2023/02/artseen/Susan-Philipsz-Separated-Strings/ (Accessed: 20 November 2024)

Gural, N. (2023) Artist Susan Philipsz Commands Our Attention With ‘Separated Strings’, Conveying Truth Of The Holocaust. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/natashagural/2023/01/31/artist-susan-philipsz-commands-our-attention-with-separated-strings-conveying-truth-of-the-holocaust/ (Accessed: 20 November 2024)

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2023) Susan Philipsz: Separated Strings. Available at: https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/694-susan-philipsz-separated-strings-tanya-bonakdar-gallery-new-york/ (Accessed: 20 November 2024)

The Museum of Modern Art (2013) Susan Philipsz. Available at: https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/soundings/artists/11/works/ (Accessed: 20 November 2024)

Inside the Blind Iris and Yellow

I watched Inside the Blind Iris, directed by Douglas Bernardt, with music by Torben Lars Sylvest and sound design by Pär Carlsson. It was an expressionistic dance film with a dreamlike pace to it. Momentum rose and fell with the gritty, subtext-rich visuals, the dancers’ rhythm increasing in emotional pitch and intensity. It reflects a sense of entrapment, a rebuke of the work/life status quo. One of my favourite moments were the offbeat freeze frames of the frenzied dancers’ faces starting at 5:09. I did not love the written text that would appear throughout, I felt that was the film tipping its hand a little too much, entering the sophomoric. The sound, shoes squeaking on the floor and factory ambience created an intriguing sense of playfulness with the grave monochromatic imagery. Significantly, during some of the colour portions of the film, sampled score from a much older film plays, tonally reminiscent of cinema from the 1940s to the 1950s. This sense of romance and drama complements the themes of escape the film suggests.

Still from Inside the Blind Iris,

Yellow from 2023, directed by Elham Ehsas, was an extremely different experience. A short film concerning the oppressive regime and Sharia doctrine in Kabul, Afghanistan following the 2021 NATO and US withdrawal of troops and subsequent seize of power by the Taliban. The beautifully framed vignette of a woman purchasing her Hijab speaks volumes with very little, reflecting the wider patriarchal crackdown on women’s rights through a small, yet resoundingly significant moment. We move from the aural, documentarian chaos of crowd voices and birdsong into a more composed ‘scene’ inside a clothier. The quiet throughout the film from this point onwards is striking. I found this film profoundly depressing, the relative silence of its soundscape heightened its impact. The principle characters’ hushed voices among the deadening fabrics betraying not just the intimate, but the intimation of wider sociological subtext of oppression and loss of freedom. Dynamically, the film dances on the boundary between intimacy and claustrophobia, the smothered voice and hidden face, the unspoken loss sealed away. I noticed the role of diegetic music and language as signifiers of freedom, the seller’s music and repetition of English words acting as motifs for independence, presented almost as final expressions of freedom and personal choice before re-entering the outside world.

Still from Yellow (2023) directed by Elham Ehsas

References:

Inside the Blind Iris (2023) Directed by Douglas Bernardt. [Short film] United Kingdom: Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage.

Yellow (2023) Directed by Elham Ehsas. [Short film] United Kingdom: Azana Films.