Cartes Postales Video brings postcards to life. Pic courtesy the artist
Exhibition preview: Robert Cahen - Passage, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, January 17 - March 14 2009
Robert Cahen’s mission is to change the usual order of his chosen discipline. ‘Concrete music’, based on working with organic, found sounds rather than traditional music instruments, tends to be inspired by imagery, but Cahen wants to create images inspired by the sounds.
“Everything that’s done in concrete music can be done with electronic imagery,” the French artist muses somewhat cryptically, bringing his first solo exhibition to the UK. “I wanted to do images that I had made with music.”
Paysage has been loaned to the exhibition by a French counterpart. Pic courtesy the artist
Cahen trained as a composer at the Paris Conservatoire in the early 1970s, studying concrete music under the guidance of Pierre Schaeffer, and swiftly developed an interest in transferring the musical concepts and technical skills he had learnt to video, film and photography.
Of the eight video installations on display, the earliest is Cartes Postales Video, which will allow visitors to pay a whirlwind virtual visit to international tourist hotspots such as Lisbon and Rome. He uses stop-start techniques to mould ordinary postcards into a journey, revolving around the café at the Harris Museum.
18 screens are involved in the presentation of Paysage. Pic courtesy the artist
Paysage/Passage (Landscapes/Passage) has been loaned to the museum by FRAC Alsace in France, described as “a disjointed, cinematic train journey” which focuses on time, travel and contemplation through a manipulation of images and sound across 18 screens.
In Shroud, gravel crunches under viewers’ feet as portraits float silently over their heads in an installation based on the biblical story of the Veil of Veronica, in which Christ’s image remained unshakably imprinted on cloth.
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