Individual timesCatherine Bechard (CA) & Sabin Hudon (CA)

Kinetic sound instalation, 2012 - 2013

The kinetic sound installation Individual Times contains a cluster of loudspeakers inserted into the lids of multi-sized glass jars. They rest on slipmats and are each topped with a glass dome that can be raised by a system of electromechanical pulleys. Audio cables linked to amplifiers cluster around the glass devices strewn across the floor. Initially, the work rests in silence; it is activated when we enter its detection field. Only then will we walk into an acoustic and mechanical ground of rhythmic inhaling and exhaling. Sounds travel from one amplifier to the other in a to-and-from movement. The domes are raised in a slow and irregular movement creating a variation in so und levels, going from muffled to gradually revelatory in more or less fleeting moments in time. The repetitive movements of breath and glass domes are the prerequisites of time transformations, engaging us as observers of gaps and variations, rather than as keepers of time. The punctuation of silence is embodied by a spatial volume and a temporal dimension where breath and mechanics are suddenly quietened to make way for unintentional events, actions that escape our command. The pause marks a moment of suspension and elasticity in time expressed in continuity. There is no disconnection or stillness of time; the interval in this continuous process is to be looked upon as space in expansion. From this perspective, the silence of the breath is a blank page and the silence of the mechanics, a void gesture offering us other objects of attention, playing out like ever-elusive horizons.

Catherine Bechard (CA) & Sabin Hudon (CA)

Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon are an artistic duo living and working in Montreal, engaged in the fields of sound sculpture, kinetic sound installations, audio art, electronic art and performance. Animated objects and their components have been at the heart of their research and creativity from the very beginning. They are interested in listenership through resonance in itself, (resonance as source and reception), in acoustically generated sounds/noises, their propagation, the impressions they create, as well as the “things” and the “empty spaces” which make up our perceptual fields. Assembling the fleeting forces of attraction that sight, touch and sound exert on each other, the two produce works that attempt to make visible and audible the trivial details of our everyday microcosm. These are shaped by the space environment itself as well as the motility or stillness of people in the installation. They occupy the space through sound and movement; they emphasize the impact of the various compo nents and materials on each other. The duo’s works put into perspective the transient and ever-changing nature of things and beings as well as our temporal presence in the world. Their collaborative works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions thr oughout major Canadian cities, the Czech Republic, Brazil, the United States, Germany and China.

catherineb@bechardhudon.com; sabinh@bechardhudon.com
bechardhudon.com