Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives.

Quartair proudly presents A State of Amplitude, an exhibition of sonic sculptures, instruments and sound transmitting vessels. This assemblage of sounding objects will remain open for compositional coincidences, spatial conditions and modes of relation. Together, these dynamic pieces will build a shifting soundscape in the special acoustics of Quartair. By entering this space of vibrations, an identification occurs between listener and elemental matter, between inside and outside, between hallucination and realism.

With works by Andre Bartetzki (DE), Andreas Trobollowitsch (AU), Hans van Koolwijk (NL), Louis Braddock Clarke (UK/NL), Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof (NL), Natalia Domínguez Rangel (NL/CO/AU), Wen Chin Fu (TW/NL)

The exhibition opened in the context of Rewire Festival, on September 9th, and runs until this weekend, September 24th-26th, with performances by Hans van Koolwijk, playing the legendary Bambuso, a self-made organ pipe made of bamboo.

This exhibition is generously supported by Royal Eijsbouts, Mondriaan Fonds, The Municipality of The Hague, Stroom Den Haag, and the Austrian Embassy.

Read more on: https://www.quartair.nl/a-state-of-amplitude/

Artworks & artists:

Bambuso (1996 – ongoing) – Hans van Koolwijk

Bambuso is an unpolished sound sculpture that is used as a musical instrument, whereby the visual setting reflects the aural experience. Sounds can be seen, as it were. The central work of Hans van Koolwijk, Bambuso, originates from the idea of a single performer operating a number of flutes simultaneously. For the last 30 years, van Koolwijk has been creating and constantly adding to this extensive palette of sound machines.

Telluric Variation (2021) – Louis Braddock Clarke

The shifting scapes of material in the ground’s sub-surface bend, tweak, and distort magnetotelluric currents. Vertical stratas of rocks, soils, and metals slump over time due to climatic variation disturbing the porous materials below. As the minerals fluctuate, telluric currents also shift in a never-developing sonic dialogue. The magnetic data stored and amplified by the ground properties of the site are decoded by a geo-tool.

This anomaly acts as a conductive network, circulating and recalibrating both local and global electrical signals. The Earth becomes a substrate for listening, in which the under ground filters and displays electro-currents. Through the production of ‘Geo-tools’ the work borrows from scientific measuring devices which have been re-purposed for the act of long listening rather than data collection.The installation offers a live dig into the electrical depths of The Hague.

Overlap (2020) – Natalia Domínguez Rangel

Overlap is a sound sculpture that listens to its acoustic environment and encapsulates in the shape of an electroacoustic composition of the acoustic ecology that surround sit. For “A State of Amplitude” the acoustic ecology of Quartair in The Hague will be the main focus. It’s a collaborative work of augmented layering of the ambient and bleeding of present with past moments in time.

Pot-Shot / Ton-Techniek (2012) – Andre Bartetzki

Pot-Shot/Ton-Techniek belongs to a series of installations using plant pots as percussive instruments. Triggered by push solenoids, the instruments perform chaotic, evolving repetitive patterns, single pulses or bursts. As the sound of the pots is short and dry, one’s perception expands to the spatial and temporal extent of the pulses and patterns and less to melodic, spectral or harmonic qualities produced by the plant pots. Each clink of the pots becomes a pure marker in space and time.

Sino (2021) – Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof

Sino is a bronze bell standing upside down with its mouth facing the sky. Struck by an exciter installed in its interior, overtones are generated, turning the bell into a singing bowl. Often used in Eastern rituals, singing bowls are also known as ‘standing bells’ or ‘resting bells’. In Sino, the ‘resting bell’ becomes an instrument for resonance and reflection, rendering the sound not as an alarm signal, but as a call for contemplation.

Tang – Sounding Sugar (2015) – Wen Chin Fu

Matter has its own hidden secret. By making, observing and listening to it we can find the entrance into this secret. Tang is a percussion instrument made of crystallized sugar, exploring the acoustic potential of this everyday ingredient. The work originated in an artistic residency at a former sugar refinery in Taiwan, in 2015, where Wen Chin Fu was working together with artist Mariska de Groot. For ‘A State of Amplitude’, Fu will be developing this sugar instrument into a physical installation. This iteration of Tang, will provide different ways of playing, listening and eating (the sound of) sugar.

Ventorgano (2014) – Andreas Trobollowitsch

Ventorgano is an electroacoustic synthesizer that allows its player precise control. It consists of five resonating bodies shaped like square columns, over which one guitar string each is strung and made to vibrate by prepared fans. Per string, there are two fans that turn at differing speeds. As these speeds shift, micro-rhythmical elements are the result. The speed of each individual fan can be adjusted progressively, which also changes the overtone spectrum.