2015
Michaelis School of Fine Art
Graduate Show
The exhibition showcases the final year body of work created by students completing their Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree as well as Post Graduate Diplomas in Fine Art. Student disciplines include the exploration of painting, sculpture, new media, print media and photography, providing rich and diverse visual engagements in a variety of different contexts.
The exhibition will open on Friday 11th December at 18:00 and will close Saturday 19th December 16:00.
Artist Statement
... And then there was a Subterraneous Hum
The exhibition (examination exhibition depicted below) explored how noise pollution affected marine mammals’ ability to echolocate due to ship engines, sonar, seismic blasts for mining and natural sounds, such as earthquakes. Whales have been known to beach themselves because of the amount of noise experienced because noise pollution makes it difficult for them to echolocate their migratory paths, food or each other. The series’ monochromatic visual style emulates spectrograms and sonar. This series was part of an interactive sound installation where the viewer could sing to an imagined whale and it would sing back.
I used found medical illustrations of whale bones before editing them to look similar to black and white spectrographs. Whales feel sound through a membrane in their lower jawbone. I chose to use spine bones because that is what usually stands out the most for me at museums. This projection was displayed at my final exam exhibition at Michaelis (School of Fine Art in Cape Town). The projection is in front of the interactive sound piece where the viewer could sing to a whale and it would sing back. Special thanks to helo samo, Matthew Jones and Moeneeb Dalwai.
