Kihlberg & Henry
26 Oct - 01 Nov 2015
KIHLBERG & HENRY
fig-2 43/50
26 October – 1 November 2015
Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry’s new commission ‘This Building, This Breath’ amplifies their long-term engagement with filmic voiceovers, their investigation into the disembodied voice, the acousmatic sound and the possibility of pushing the art experience into situations of liveness. Their new work emerges as a hypnotic foray into presentness and the passing of time, as it speaks to the viewer as a witness to the content laid bare. Introducing sound and moving image as two distinct bodies under the same skin, the artist duo chooses to separate these sources, thus involving a speaker as part of the work who will deliver the script from behind a screen, voicing content that coincides with the choreography of projected images. In the script, Kihlberg & Henry make use of a varied series of references to cultural understandings of breathing, from biological meanings and principles in martial arts and yoga to deviations of the term such as those used in breathing materials and lens breathing. For the film, they combine found footage with exerts from other films and advertorials. Adopting mechanisms familiar to the spheres of hypnosis or meditation in the structure and delivery of the script, they drive towards an abstract proposition that the room itself is breathing.
fig-2 would like to thank the Arts Council England for their generous support towards Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry’s new commission.
Karin Kihlberg (b.1978, Sweden) & Reuben Henry (b.1979, UK) live and work in London. Selected solo and group projects include: Res., London, The Welcome Collection, London, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2015), Antimatter Film Festival, Canada, Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2014). Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation (2012). Kihlberg & Henry are the co-ordinators of The Disembodied Voice collaborative Research group and worked as researchers at the Jan van Eyck Academie between 2009-11.
fig-2 43/50
26 October – 1 November 2015
Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry’s new commission ‘This Building, This Breath’ amplifies their long-term engagement with filmic voiceovers, their investigation into the disembodied voice, the acousmatic sound and the possibility of pushing the art experience into situations of liveness. Their new work emerges as a hypnotic foray into presentness and the passing of time, as it speaks to the viewer as a witness to the content laid bare. Introducing sound and moving image as two distinct bodies under the same skin, the artist duo chooses to separate these sources, thus involving a speaker as part of the work who will deliver the script from behind a screen, voicing content that coincides with the choreography of projected images. In the script, Kihlberg & Henry make use of a varied series of references to cultural understandings of breathing, from biological meanings and principles in martial arts and yoga to deviations of the term such as those used in breathing materials and lens breathing. For the film, they combine found footage with exerts from other films and advertorials. Adopting mechanisms familiar to the spheres of hypnosis or meditation in the structure and delivery of the script, they drive towards an abstract proposition that the room itself is breathing.
fig-2 would like to thank the Arts Council England for their generous support towards Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry’s new commission.
Karin Kihlberg (b.1978, Sweden) & Reuben Henry (b.1979, UK) live and work in London. Selected solo and group projects include: Res., London, The Welcome Collection, London, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2015), Antimatter Film Festival, Canada, Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2014). Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation (2012). Kihlberg & Henry are the co-ordinators of The Disembodied Voice collaborative Research group and worked as researchers at the Jan van Eyck Academie between 2009-11.