Review | John Wynne’s work be...

Generated on 2022-10-08 00:11:39

Result #1

John Wynne’s work begins with a focus on sound. He makes work for museums, galleries, public spaces and radio: it ranges from large-scale installations to delicate sculptural works; from architectural sound drawings to flying radios and 'composed documentaries' that hover between documentation and abstraction. This show included drawings, paintings, sculptures and films, along with the six pieces that comprise his Sound Objectives, 1988, which he made in collaboration with the artist Peter Zumthor, and which were exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1991. (Wynne has lived in New York since the mid 70s, and this show was his first solo exhibition.) The series, made in collaboration with Zumthor, consists of small, low-relief paintings of the artists voice and of various kinds of acoustic equipment, ranging from a cell phone to a flat-toy radio to a typewriter and speakers. These works are self-portraits, but not entirely self-reflexive: the artist is always in the process of communicating with the world around him.The piece in the main gallery was called The Man Who Speaks, 1988. It consists of a large, high-relief painting of a man in a suit and tie sitting in front of a radio; he speaks, and the picture, framed by a wire antenna, is a loop of a broadcast of his voice. A recording of the radio can be heard. In the foreground, a woman is seen in a seat at a table, holding a small, pink and yellow telephone; she speaks, and a picture of her face appears in the window. The photo of the radio can be seen from the street. The woman is standing in a chair, and she is the only one who has actually entered the gallery. The camera has been pointed at the telephone, and the sound of her voice is the only sound. The table itself is empty, and the viewer is invited to sit down.The woman who speaks is the artist, and she has the same voice as the radio. She is also the artist who has been photographed, but she is not the one speaking. She stands on the floor, and is the only one who has actually entered the gallery.

Result #2

John Wynne’s work begins with a focus on sound. He makes work for museums, galleries, public spaces and radio: it ranges from large-scale installations to delicate sculptural works; from architectural sound drawings to flying radios and 'composed documentaries' that hover between documentation and abstraction. This show marked Wynnes first solo exhibition in Italy and the first time he has had to confront this situation.The first room contained a group of works that were made by means of a variety of objects and techniques. The most significant of them is a series of black-and-white photographs of a group of dancers in front of a camera. In a gesture that seems very contemporary, the photographer has digitally removed the face from the body, leaving only the long hair and the suggestive posture of the group. The images have been blown up and combined with a video of a group of men dancing. The video is projected in the center of the room, so that the image appears to float above the heads of the other performers. The piece, which is accompanied by a sound track, is a kind of dance film, a photographic record of a group of people engaged in a dance. The video is a kind of projection, but one that doesnt require any physical presence; it only needs the presence of the viewer to be experienced. The group of dancers also includes a group of children who pose for the camera. The video is projected on a black-and-white wall, which creates a kind of stage. In it, the children perform their daily activities: they sit on a bench, they walk through a gate, they look out a window, they look around. The children are clearly the focus of the video, but they are also the subjects of the work. These children, who are often dressed in costumes borrowed from the childrens clothing market in New York, perform their daily routines with an intensity that is almost physical. They are self-conscious and aware of their role, yet also self-consciously aware of their own place in a world of bodies that are, at the same time, a part of the same reality as the adults in the video.

Result #3

John Wynne’s work begins with a focus on sound. He makes work for museums, galleries, public spaces and radio: it ranges from large-scale installations to delicate sculptural works; from architectural sound drawings to flying radios and 'composed documentaries' that hover between documentation and abstraction. Wynne has always been interested in the aesthetics of sound, particularly that of the female voice. His installation at the Berkeley Art Museum, Spatial Soundscapes, 1999–2000, features a stack of speakers and an audio-stage system that contains a record of a female voice. The voice is heard singing a song, and the sound is followed by images of other people singing, including one of Wynnes best-known images, of a black woman singing about a white man. The voice is given voice by an unseen voice-over, a performance that becomes a kind of dance. It is a powerful image, which is what Wynnes work often achieves. In the new work, for instance, the artist has given the woman who is supposed to be listening a voice that is also singing. She sings, but it is not the voice of the artist; it is a female voice.Wynnes project, and especially his use of sound, has always been grounded in the question of where we find art. He has always worked with sound, often using it as a surrogate for the artwork itself. The sound in Spatial Soundscapes is a recording of a female voice, but it is also a recording of an actual woman singing. The idea of the recording is reminiscent of the work of Peter Gordon, and it can be read as an allegory of the artists relationship to sound. It is not the artist who is singing, but the recording of a female voice, which is to say that it is a recording of a female voice. In Wynnes work, the female voice is a metaphor for the artist. It is an image that the artist appropriates, but one that remains hidden, like the female voice.In the new work, Wynnes problem is to find a way to translate the sounds that he has captured into concrete images.

Result #4

John Wynne’s work begins with a focus on sound. He makes work for museums, galleries, public spaces and radio: it ranges from large-scale installations to delicate sculptural works; from architectural sound drawings to flying radios and 'composed documentaries' that hover between documentation and abstraction. His work with sound is often less an extension of his work with sound, and more the opposite: a sonic apparatus is shown to function as a visual source of information and a tool for interpreting signs.For his recent show in Los Angeles, Wynne made two installations and a number of sound installations. His main idea is to bring together various forms of communication, both audible and non-audible, that can be used in different ways, both for their visual and their linguistic aspects. In a show like This Is a Non-Place, which has been widely criticized as a grand gesture, the viewer must feel a certain sense of dislocation, of having to negotiate an area of space that is both unfamiliar and unfamiliar. And this sense of dislocation is amplified by the fact that the exhibition was hung in a large room, with a wall that separated the rooms. The first work one encountered was a sort of architectural jungle, a staircase that led up to the exhibition space, and was accessible from either side. This staircase, which is a kind of exterior walkway, is visible from all sides and can be reached by steps that lead to the top of the stairs. At the same time, the staircase is visible from all sides, and one can look through it to the other side, which is visible from the other side. The space between these two spaces is a sort of fence, and it seems to serve as an artificial barrier between the two spaces. This is a kind of artificial border, a barrier that separates the two spaces in a way that is both audible and invisible. This is also a kind of natural border, a boundary that separates a child from the outside world and from his environment. It is an invisible barrier, a barrier that is always present in the landscape, a barrier that is always in danger of being violated. In the exhibition, the physical barrier that separates the two spaces was also present. A set of wooden steps runs up and down the left side of the stairs.

Result #5

John Wynne’s work begins with a focus on sound. He makes work for museums, galleries, public spaces and radio: it ranges from large-scale installations to delicate sculptural works; from architectural sound drawings to flying radios and 'composed documentaries' that hover between documentation and abstraction. ____ The sound work that defines the show is the work of three artists, a group of composers who use sound, of which there are three in the show. The three composers are Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, and Pierre Fillon, all of whom work with sound; they have been using sound for about 20 years. The first piece the three artists put together, one of the first pieces they made, was a two-part piece, which was composed of two different sound tracks. The first was an old jazz, the second a rock music, and the third a classical piece. The jazz piece was played on two separate channels, while the rock piece was played on one channel and the classical piece on the other, so that the two channels were merged into one continuous sound. The result was a kind of improvisational jazz with the classical piece, with the exception that the jazz piece was played on two separate channels, the classical on one and the rock on the other. The result was that the two tracks were very close together, but there was a difference in the tonal quality of the two. The rock piece was played on a single channel, and the jazz piece on two, so that the two tracks were very close together, but there was a difference in the tonal quality of the two. The rock piece was played on a single channel, and the jazz piece on two, so that the two tracks were very close together, but there was a difference in the tonal quality of the two. The rock piece was played on a single channel, and the jazz piece on two, so that the two tracks were very close together, but there was a difference in the tonal quality of the two. The rock piece was played on a single channel, and the jazz piece on two, so that the two tracks were very close together, but there was a difference in the tonal quality of the two.