(Above) Pierre Huyghe, Sans titre (Le carillon d’après “Dream” de John Cage), 1997. Picture © the artist, Collection FRAC Nord–Pas de Calais
Exhibtion: Sound of Music and Crossroads, Turner Contemporary Project Space, Margate, until June 14 2009
Turner Contemporary's latest exhibition deconstructs music into its constituent parts, then looks at how artists choose to interpret these groovy vibrations. Anyone expecting the merry sing-along antics of Julie Andrews will be in for a shock.
Sound of Music is rather the realm of the likes of John Cage, the modern composer whose work 4'33" famously requires its performers to make no sound for a duration of four minutes and 33 seconds.
Of course, when the work is performed there is never truly silence. Nervous coughs, cars passing by, the chirruping of oblivious wildlife – all make their mark on the unfolding quiet. For Cage these are not intrusions but part of the piece itself – proof that there is no true silence, at least not until we die.
Allen Rupppersberg, The Singing Posters, 2003-2005. Picture © the artist, Collection FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais
Cage was influenced by the Eastern philosophies of Taoism and Zen Buddhism, putting their teachings into practice in his music, which he characterized as a simultaneously "purposeless play" and "affirmation of life". He used the Chinese I-Ching, or Book of Changes, to introduce chance and randomness in his work, endlessly flipping coins to see where the piece would go next.
His fascinating brand of high-concept hi-jinx is perfectly suited to Sound of Music, and the man's work is on show alongside the creations of others who may well have found him an inspiration.
One piece by Pierre Huyghe features 200 suspended metal chimes suspended in arrangement based on a score written by Cage. Visitors are invited to blunder amongst them, producing artistic clangs.
There are 30 works here, taking in video, text, interactive sculpture and sound, including an opportunity to experience the collection of FRAC Nord-Pas De Calais, Dunkirk, who produced the original version of this travelling experience.
Ellen Cantor and John Cussans, Whitby Weekender Dance Lesson, 2006. Picture © the artists, Collection FRAC Nord–Pas de Calais
But though the extended drones of key minimalist composer La Monte Young also echo through the space, Sound of Music is not solely dedicated to the rarefied world of modern classical.
Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller has used a blackboard and chalk to trace the many links between Acid House and brass bands in his History of the World (1996), while Scott King has produced a series of prints in which historic moments in the mythologies of rock bands are represented with graphic design.
Meredyth Sparks has covered iconic images of rock stars with shards of foil and glitter, combining creative energy and destruction. Johanna Billing's 2005 video installation, Magical World, presents a glimpse of Croatia in transition, with the artist and children from an after-school music club filmed rehearsing the Sidney Barnes song.
David Blandy, Crossroads (2009). Picture © the artist
Accompanying Sound of Music's collision of art and sound is Crossroads, a new film installation by David Blandy exploring the mythology surrounding Robert Johnson, the legendary American bluesman who reputedly sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for his musical mastery.
The film follows a man with a guitar, known only as the Blues Legend, as he wanders the Missippi Delta. A soundtrack of searing slide guitar follows the figure as he searches for his lost soul and encounters an "inverted Minstrel" who raises the uncomfortable questions of race, segregation and cultural appropriation, all tied up in an exploration of the blues.
For more information visit Turner Contemporary.
