Opening Reception is Thursday, June 6 from 6-8pm at 507 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001
 

In collaboration with Chelsea Music festival and High Line Nine

The gallery and the Chelsea Music Festival are pleased to partner with High Line Nine for an off-site exhibition of Julianne Swartz’s Sounding Body - Listening Body. Julianne Swartz’s sculptural installations use sound as a means to heighten perception, encouraging audiences to explore space, affect, and one another through both intimate objects and interactive work. The artist has developed the Sine Body series to create a somatic sound experience that is felt, as well as heard (1). For Sounding Body - Listening Body, she presents eight objects from the series, selected for their tonal and visual compatibility.

Using the acoustically reflective materials of ceramic and glass, Swartz has built a group of hybrid instruments that suggest corporeal forms. Visibly handcrafted, these vessels resemble deflated limbs, distended organs, or industrial objects that have slumped and folded in the course of their making (2). The forms are familiar and foreign, very much their own bodies. Utilizing an electronic feedback process, Swartz locates the pure Sine tones, resonant in each vessel, with no additive sound.  The unique shape, size, and orifices give each its own voice. Swartz’s objects explore the ways in which sculptures, bodies, and the buildings they occupy can be synchronized as resonant chambers for pure sound.

As an installation, the sculptures play their distinctive tones together in a composed soundscape. In addition, the vessels will be performed as live instruments during two concerts. On June 13, Swartz will join Cellist Jonathan Butler, and Violinist Mariella Haubs for a unique collaborative performance as part of the Chelsea Music Festival. On Thursday, June 27th, Swartz will perform a sonic activation of the sculptures, layering the sounds in spatial harmonies. This performance is free and open to the public. Please see https://www.eventbrite.com/e/julianne-swartzs-sounding-body-listening-body-performance-tickets-63779045843 to reserve your spot. Sine Body has been shown previously at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2017), and The Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond, VA (2018-2019).

Born in Phoenix, AZ, Julianne Swartz lives and works in Stone Ridge, New York. She is best known for her interdisciplinary practice, which yields multisensory installations. Ongoing installations include: In Harmonicity, the Tonal Walkway, at MASS MoCA, MA; Blue Sky with Rainbow, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, AU; and Terrain, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN. A permanent Percent for Art project will be completed in the Hunters Point Community Library, a newly constructed building by Steven Hall in Queens, New York this fall. Past exhibitions include Hedges, Edges, Dirt, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Richmond, VA (2019) Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound at the Museum of Art and Design, New York; (2017) Resonant Spaces at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, NH (2017). a traveling mid-career survey, How Deep is Your, the deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA (2012), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ (2013), and Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN (2014). Explode Everyday: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2016); Terrain, De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, NL (2013); Digital Empathy, The Highline, New York (2011); The Sound of Light, The Jewish Museum, New York (2009); Voice and Void, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2007); the Liverpool Biennial, Tate Museum, UK (2006); and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004). in 2015, Swartz was the recipient of the Anonymous was a Women Award.

1 Shannon Stratton, Sonic Arcade, exhibition text, Museum of Arts and Design
2 Amber Esseiva, Hedges Edges Dirt, exhibition text, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University