Charles Gaines SOUND TEXT

20 Oct 2017

The language of protest and resistance provides the music for this thought-provoking small chamber opera. In Sound Text, political writings are ingeniously transcribed into harmonies and then layered with historical song melodies ranging from Reconstruction-era spirituals to French Revolutionary ballads. Created by renowned US conceptual artist Charles Gaines, with musical arrangements by Sean Griffin of Opera Povera, Sound Text is a unique fusion of art and music.

For more than forty years, Charles Gaines’ cross-disciplinary conceptual art practice has explored the relationship between aesthetics and politics through the use of semiotics, logic, and rule-based structures. This performance of Sound Text accompanies the artist’s participation in The Score, a multi-disciplinary exhibition which takes performance scores as a starting point to consider artworks which shift between sonic, visual and linguistic realms.

The performance includes a discussion with the artist.

Created by: Charles Gaines
Arranged by: Sean Griffin
Conducted by: Brett Kelly
Performers: Dimity Shepherd (Mezzo Soprano), David Rogers-Smith (Tenor), Laurence Matheson (Piano), Quartz String Quartet: Kathryn Taylor (Violin), Philippa West (Violin), Merewyn Bramble (Viola), Zoe Wallace (Cello)

Supporters

This event is presented by the Ian Potter Museum of Art in association with the Melbourne Festival, and in partnership with the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Charles Gaines’ visit to Australia has been funded by the Consulate General of the United States, Melbourne, and generously supported by the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne.

Supporters

The Potter acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we work and create. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging.