ANDY WEBSTER
Materials: 14 Salvaged Horns, Compression Drivers, Plantwave Devices, Guitar pedals, Tree leaves [dimensions 10m x 2m x 2m]
Bruce Nauman's absurd meditation on death in 'Violin Tuned D.E.A.D.' (1969) gains resonance when considered in the context of the then ongoing Vietnam War. Over half a century later, current conflicts such as those in Ukraine and Gaza demonstrate a profound and persistent failure to prevent genocide and ecocide inflicted upon people, wildlife, ecology, and the land. Playing D.E.A.D. reimagines Nauman's work by replacing the human performer with sounds generated in real-time by the electrical activity of trees. Utilising biodata devices tuned to the notes D, E, A, and D, the work gives a voice to nature's typically silent witnesses: four trees that generate their own absurd mortality song.
A field recording of the work in Ebersberger Forest
The project was developed with the support of curator Peter Kees for the project War Aspects, Bavaria, Germany [2024].