Sonar

Lorraine Oades, Ana Rewakowicz, Ingrid Bachmann

Sonar is a site-specific, performative intervention using sound, light, and water in conjunction with the architectural qualities of the exhibition site. It is an attempt to inhabit a space, to create a simultaneity of experience that refers to the history of the site. This installation creates a kinesthetic landscape or stage upon which viewers are invited to enter. A giant cloud of mist is the central element of the artwork. This mist is generated from high pressure nozzles used in green house irrigation systems. Participants are invited to walk in and around the fine spray of water using umbrellas that have been placed there for their use. As viewers walk through the space, they trigger infrared sensors that activate prerecorded sounds that reverberate though the site. The sound in the installation refers to sonar’s method of detecting and locating objects submerged in water by means of sound waves. Our project inverts in a very direct way, the exterior space into the interior. It is a homage to the site, a conversation with light, water, sound and architecture; a history of the space where the traditional binary model of absence and presence is no longer viable. Absence is no longer nothingness – it is a rich territory full of data, histories, memories and stories, the hum of experience and information, past and present.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association Professional Development.