Tanaz Modabber
Carillon
8. July – 23. October 2016

Tanaz Modabber's solo exhibition Carillon at Lichthaus Arnsberg includes works utilizing a refractive quality of formed material. The exhibition refers to bells usually arranged within a greater instrument, such as a bell tower, playable in series for melodies or in sync as a chord. The artist's hanging sculptures, balancing curved brass rods and strands of black rubber linked together and suspending polished bells from Zur-Kakhaneh, a traditional gymnasium in Iran, hold sound against a backdrop of the environment’s familiar soundscapes. Through the space’s prolific windows a nearby church tower is clearly visible, the regular chiming of which inspired the piece. Lines cast in space, shadows cast on the walls, floor, and ceiling, the configurations are melodic in formation, corresponding in harmony with present surrounds and future nodes of interaction. Inaugurating the exhibition opening, and likewise commencing the sounding of the space and its installation, three choral singers were commissioned by the artist to sing a series of vocalizations within the exhibition emptied of all visitors. After a lapse in time a further performer entered, rhythmically sounding a membranophone, followed by the crowd of onlookers. The works were not without this layer of timed vocal and percussive intervention, which together worked to tune the pieces as a whole. Such layering of dynamic activation is emblematic of Modabber's practice, which sets in motion space and sound through principles of repetition and translation, where her malleable works transform in time, simultaneously conducting and inviting musical encounters.

 

Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch