As Berlin hosts Zeitgeist Irland 24, an arts festival that celebrates Irish arts and culture, celebrated electronic composer Kev Sheridan showcases his latest work, Sound of Vision, a multimedia affair. This fascinating experiment pairs the work of four distinct artists with sound he has shaped to represent them, and it promises to be an immersive experience.
What were the motivations behind the concept?
I wanted to create a gallery experience that had multiple layers to it – an exhibition where you can see and appreciate physical art pieces visually, but also hear interpretations of those pieces aurally.
As the reactions are being played aloud simultaneously during the exhibition, a collective soundscape is formed in the entire room (which never repeats the same way twice due to the differing lengths of the pieces).
Can you tell us about how this collaboration came to be? And what inspired it?
The initial inspiration came from work I had previously done for Hang Tough Contemporary, where I was asked to provide musical reactions to their solo exhibitions for use in their promotional videos.
This naturally progressed into an idea of curating an exhibition in Berlin where my musical reactions to visual art would be playing in the gallery itself, via speakers located at the pieces.
I set out to find suitable artists and am very happy to have four amazingly talented contemporary artists, whose work I adore, on board. The exhibition was then included in the Zeitgeist Irland 24 programme by Culture Ireland, showcasing Irish arts and culture in Germany through this year.
Who are the visual artists involved? And how did you approach creating the responses to their pieces?
The four artists are Eileen O’Sullivan, Orfhlaith Egan, David Hedderman, and Christopher Colm Morrin. Each has a beautiful, distinctive style which both complement and provide contrast in the visual art and the resulting responses.
In order to understand the background of the physical pieces, I had multiple meetings with the artists, discussing their methods, general themes and what they are conveying artistically with their work.
This then gave me a starting point as to the themes to work with for each artist, what instruments to use, the sonic emotions I would like to include, etc. I then combined these ideas with the visceral feelings I had while viewing the pieces, and transferred those into musical elements in order to create a somewhat synaesthetic response.
The responses ultimately represent my interpretation of the art through a combination of all of these elements.
Sound of Vision takes place from May 16-19, in Berlin
