TarraWarra Biennial 2012: Sonic Spheres

Sonic Spheres is the third iteration of the TarraWarra Biennial, which was initiated in 2006 as a signature exhibition to identify new developments in contemporary Australian art. The exhibition presents an assemblage of artists who are engaged with sound, music, voice and performance. Their works, which include drawings, musical scores, sculptures made from musical instruments, paintings and video, invite us to listen to art, to find new sounds and melodies.

Each artist in Sonic Spheres is engaged with music, sound, voice and performance as a creative source. They have a profound belief that the image or object, and its sonic dimensions, are integrated. The works in the exhibition and on the accompanying CD are motivated by improvisation, vibration, frequency, connection, chance, translation, composition, texture, assemblage and implosion. These are dynamic qualities that are common to both visual arts and sonic arts. The circle and cone, line and chord, sphere and speaker, diverse uses of language, harmonies and disharmonies are some of the refrains that occur through the exhibition and CD.

There are two intertwining tendencies in the exhibition and the CD. The first group are indebted to avant-garde traditions from the early and mid-twentieth century, where disharmony, noise and everyday sounds provided inspiration for artists. These were experiments in chance, asymmetry and discord. The second group are more specifically interested in cultural and linguistic memory—the ways in which music or sound acts as a method of communication across space, through cultures and over time.

This year, the Biennial includes the work of 20 artists and one collaborative group: Robyn Backen, Lauren Brincat, Eugene Carchesio, The Donkey’s Tail, Marco Fusinato, Nathan Gray, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Ross Manning, Dylan Martorell, Victor Meertens, Angelica Mesiti, Yukultji Napangati, James Newitt, Tom Nicholson with Andrew Byrne, John Nixon, Sandra Selig, Christian Thompson, Ray James Tjangala and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula.