Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » 2010 » Janet Cardiff: The Forty-Part Motet
Janet Cardiff: The Forty-Part Motet
20 February - 16 May 2010 in the West Gallery
The Forty-Part Motet(2001) by Canadian artist Janet Cardiff is an immersive sculpturally-conceived sound piece, in which forty separately-recorded voices are played back through forty speakers. This staggering immersive installation is a reworking of Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui (1573) by Thomas Tallis, one of England’s most influential Renaissance composers.
Enter the gallery space and you encounter a circle of speakers, each emitting the voice of an individual chorister so that each speaker becomes a mouth. Visitors are encouraged to walk through the space listening to different configurations of voice parts. The eleven minute work begins with the assembly of the singers as they prepare to deliver the piece, pleasantries are exchanged, throats are cleared prior to silence as the conductor corrals to choir into action. At once intimate and encompassing, tender and incredibly dramatic, this work must be heard and felt in person.
Janet Cardiff’s work combines sound, movement and environment; the viewer/listener often proactively moves through the space activating sounds and unfolding narratives. She often works in collaboration with Georges Bures Miller and their work Murder of Crows was a huge hit at the recent 2008 Biennale of Sydney. Cardiff and Bures Miller live and work between Berlin and Grindrod, BC, Canada.
Public Programmes
Curator’s Tour for the Visually Impaired Community
Wednesday 21 April, 2.30pm
Lecture: Dugal McKinnon discusses Janet Cardiff’s sound installation, The Forty-Part Motet
Friday 30 April, 12.30pm
Choral Recital
Wednesday 5 May, 6pm
Media Releases
Janet Cardiff - Art for the Ears
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