The exhibitions that I managed to watch from start to finish were the bell project and For A Few Socks of Marbles. While the former is truly mesmerizing, the latter provides me insights into the artist’s multi-cultural childhood background and his unique ways to deal with the complications. The process to make the perfect marble ball is repetitive but very rewarding, the kids would say. When artist himself was a kid, he would make the marbles as do the other kids in his Kurdish neighborhood. What makes the difference is that he managed to convince the Kurdish kids to play the Arab way of marble game, resulting in his grand triumph. The sounds it makes when children hit the stone is repetitive and each one of them similar. However, the more people hear it, the more distinguished the difference between each sound. From the flick of the wrist, the different angle the kids hit, and the strength needed to perfect different surface, produce the most harmonic, unique soundscape.
Hiwa K Gallery
I found our visit to the Hiwa K Gallery to be very intriguing. On this visit, most of my time was spent roaming through the gallery trying to experience all the works in order to gather information about them. Each piece had a different effect on me. The piece that induced the most profound emotional reaction for me was the video “This Lemon Tastes of Apple.” Hiwa K was in the protest himself. It is unique that the artist is in his own piece, showing that he wanted to fully experience what was going on around him. The video shows how the people of Kurdistan were attacked by teargas by their own government. The gas smelled of apples, and the lemons were used as detoxifying agents. The sheer havoc of the scene showing the civil protest being attacked by the tyrannical government produced a profound emotional reaction. It was very sad to see the people of a nation being attacked by their own government. A key part of the scene was the audio, which we listened to through headphones that allowed the viewer to be fully immersed in the video. The audio showed how eerie the environment was and how the social unrest caused intense panic.
Hiwa K Response
The Hiwa K gallery’s use of sound and visual tools particularly interested me during our visit. Perhaps most noticeable as one enters the exhibition is the dual screen display showing the melting of the shell and the molding of the bell in the corner of the room. The screens’ playing of videos that were slightly out of loop with one another, drew my attention to the screen. Moreover, the relatively large length and width of the screen and its placement in corner of the room allowed for full immersion into the videos being played. This particular exhibit was also the only one to not require the use of headphones, meaning that its sound echoed throughout the room, drawing onlookers to its location. Other visual exhibits such as the one displaying the Kurdish protests could have drawn attention away from the primary exhibit had headphones not been used. The use of headphones for the exhibits without a visual component emphasized the phonetic elements of those exhibits.
Hiwa K Exhibit Response
During our visit to the Hiwa K’s Eyes See Far, Hands Too Short to Reach, I was particularly struck by the View From Above piece. Hiwa K narrates a fictional story of an immigrant who has been denied refugee status because his town is not considered an “unsafe zone”, so therefore lies about living in an unsafe town. The narration is low and at times almost muted, making the narration into a more personal, engaging conversation with the viewer. The visuals of a destroyed Iraqi city and the calm voice give the piece an unsettling undertone, while the deep black background contributes to the feeling of heavy dread. Hiwa K’s use of visuals is frightening, and yet his voice is calming. The narrator also talks about how voice cannot reach as far as sight, and how hands cannot reach as far as voice. This disjointed relationship between sight and voice underscores the disjointed and contradictory relationship of having to prove ones endangerment in order to be safe.
Hiwa K Gallery
I enjoyed our class visit to the Hiwa K Gallery. During the visit, I spent my time roaming through the gallery, trying to experience all of the pieces. I was intrigued by the variety of work that came together to form this collection. Each digital piece was unique from the previous one I had experienced, which kept me captivated and wondering what I would be watching and hearing next as I wandered through the gallery. I started with “This Lemon Tastes of Apple” which was an overwhelming abundance of sound with a man protesting in the streets and Hiwa K playing a harmonica. I think this experience was enhanced with the headphones because I felt like I was a part of the protest and in the streets because I was completely immersed in the sounds of the situation. It started giving me a headache so I made my way to “Cooking with Mama.” This was focused on Hiwa K cooking Kurdish meals with friends in Germany, meanwhile his mom, who had not seen in four years, was on a Skype call. I wish I had taken the opportunity to experience the event in Commons earlier this year because I feel a deeper understanding for the event after experiencing this piece. As I continued through the gallery, I listened to narrations, experienced Hiwa K dancing in an abandoned prison, and heard the clinking of tools. I felt immersed with the pieces while experiencing them and enjoyed the experience with sound.
Hiwa K Exhibit: Reaction and Response
The pieces in Hiwa K’s exhibit had varying effects on me. I felt the most drawn by the dual screen shell-melting and bell-making video that was playing in the back right corner of the exhibit. I think that it had the most mesmerizing effect on me because it was the only piece without headphones and also the one with the largest screens devoted to it. After reading the soundscape articles in preparation of viewing the exhibit, I went into the exhibit looking to identify the sonic elements that made up the exhibit’s soundscape. The aforementioned video dominated it, while the shuffling of others’ footsteps and whispers of comments on the accompanying pieces also made up part of it. I think that it would have been interesting to hear the exhibit before the video in the back left room was relegated to headphone status. Hearing the two videos together competing for the dominant place in the soundscape would have interesting.
Hiwa K Response
The Hiwa K art gallery offered many different auditory displays that each had a different cultural background. I spent most of my time watching “This Lemon tastes of Apple” by Hiwa K. It depicts the author and his friend in the middle of a street protest in 2011. The two men walk up and down the streets of a foreign country playing the harmonica and guitar through a megaphone. The shouts of men in distress as well as watching the state people were living in, had a big impact on me. The cultural difference between my life and the lives of the people in the video are very different, giving me a sense of gratitude. Wounded men were being carried away after being shot, showing the chaoticness and barbarity of their living conditions. The headphones in this exhibit allowed me to feel as if I was in their place, experiencing what Hiwa K was going through. I could clearly focus on the gunshots as well as men and women screaming for help. In the middle of this horrific protest, Hiwa K still managed to play his instrument, rallying the people around him. Men began to follow him and support them in the fight through the power of music. I never realized how the noise from instrument can have such a strong effect on people in a situation like a violent protest.
Gallery Response
I really enjoyed the Hiwa K exhibit. Having been told at the beginning of the experience that he considered himself to primarily be a musician really contextualized the work in the gallery. I spent most of my time focusing on the bell video displayed in the corner of the room with dual projections. What I found to be notable in this exhibit was the duality of it. Obviously there were two different videos being displayed at once, taking place in two different locations (Iraq and Italy). However, the two audio tracks from the videos were played simultaneously. Additionally, although there were two separate videos and audio tracks, they were both part of the same story. I really enjoyed noticing the intersection between these two parts. I spent a lot of my time watching the video taking place in Iraq, however, I would sometimes be drawn away by sounds coming from the video taking place in Italy. This at first acted as a distraction from my singular focus, but then served as a reminder that both audio tracks and videos were telling the same story. I was constantly reminded of the common story and narrative, even with the separate components.
The Power of Music
Hiwa K’s unique art, specifically “This Lemon Tastes of Apple,” expresses the powerful values that sound can carry, and the significance music has within every community. As the video follows the protest of 2011, initiated due to the desires of “bureaucratic transparency and equal access to the country’s wealth,” the viewer can understand the need for change within Sulaymaniyah along with the desperation presented by the protestors. In this time of hopelessness, Hiwa K and his friend enter “Hell” playing a harmonica and a guitar, amplifying their music through a megaphone. The attitudes of the individuals alter as if the music granted them with much-needed comfort. The “battle cry” proved to be very effective as a large group began to follow Hiwa and his friend, Daroon Othman. From the screams of terror and pain, to the soothing sounds of music, the video develops the horrifying events that took place on April 17, 2011, and the significance sound possessed within the protest.
Gallery Response
I spent most of my time at the exhibit watching the Bell Project on both screens. These films were mesmerizing; I couldn’t bring myself to move on to the other pieces, just because of how intriguing this project was. I was set on seeing how the massive bells turned out when completely finished and how the two screens connected. Using weapons to help create breathtaking bells is so interesting, so sitting down watching the process of this was amazing. Witnessing how hard these people work and the conditions they were in was also very eyeopening. Some said that they focused more on the left screen because more noice was coming from it, but I enjoyed switching from screen to screen, regardless of the volume. Watching these two different projections and offset timing of both films was something that I haven’t experienced before and kept me intrigued and wanting to watch more. It was fascinating to have the opportunity to experience this global artist’s work and learn more about something that I had previously no knowledge on.
Hiwa K Exhibition
Hiwa K’s exhibition represented the process through which things are produced, encompassing the sounds and textures that went into making items like church bells. What was especially intriguing about this exhibition was the way through which simple or everyday processes were broken down, bringing to life the sounds and actions that went into making each final product, whether it is something that produces sound or not. The center video, split onto two screens, was the installation where I spent the most time as I found it’s content to be interesting, not just because of the process through which they produced the bell, but because of how the process that was happening was the reverse to what usually happened. The cannon/weapon pieces were being used to produce the bell instead of church bells being melted to make the cannons. This contrast between how the church was (years ago) usually sacrificed to produce weapons to now how the weapons are used to form the church bells is significant because it shows a change in time and mentality. This form of art is known as symbolic art, because the main takeaway, is not the end product, but is instead the method that went into the piece’s production. Breaking down speech, or the production of something tangible, allows one to understand the method and meaning behind it, the voice behind it.
Gallery Response
I found a lot of the work hard to make up my mind about. Almost all of the pieces were quite abstract and took digital forms. I often understood the topics the artist commented on but not often his commentary. These pieces felt more like standing in the moments and places he captured than being argued to about them. I guess I like this, but I couldn’t get past the feeling that he was trying to make some point, as it seems most artists do, and I don’t believe he had nothing to say in that regard. I like his work with inversion; I like the juxtapositions. Still, I’m not entirely certain what to read in it. I found the mediums very interesting. I liked the perpendicular films. I loved seeing events, places, and culture (cooking) from the middle east. If nothing else, the strife made me all the more grateful for the safety and security this country provides. I am left thinking about his message and his work, unsure and interested.
The True Power of Sound
The “This Lemon Tastes of Apple” video was the most powerful part of this exhibit for me and this is a memory that will resonate with me for a while. Hiwa K and his friend, Daroon Othman, displayed incredible courage in playing their own rendition of a battle song. Throughout the video, you can see the mutual respect the group receives from amplifying their music through the use of a megaphone in the streets from others participating in this 2011 protest. Along with the powerful sounds of the harmonica and the group handing out lemon wedges, the audience is able to see and listen to the progression of the protest. Listening to a recorded version of this event helps us to view and listen to these events from a broader perspective. The surround sound headphones in the gallery helped me hear and focus on various sounds at one time. From my listening experience, the harmonica was the most powerful sound. The tone that was set here gave me goosebumps in displaying the true ability that sound can have in igniting a sense of valiance in people. When Hiwa and Daroon approached other protestors in the street, many joined in the march without the need for either of the two men asking. The use of music here begins to show us the true power that sound alone can have on people.
W
It Will Survive
When you think of soul music, there is hardly a piece more iconic than Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. Snare drums, piano trills, the funky beat and the intense lyrics, it is hard to listen to that song without feeling powerful, it is impossible not to hear the grain in her voice. However, that is not how I learned the song. Cake’s 1996 cover of “I will Survive” had me singing along even before I knew who Gloria Gaynor was. When A1 describes a cover song as “giving a song a second life”, or “taking something familiar and adding a twist” I felt that it didn’t fully grasp the situation. The two songs could not be more different.
The original I will survive is something grand. For the first five seconds of the song, the piano dances up and down the keyboard, introducing Gaynor in a flourish. A few seconds later the bet kicks in and it is impossible to not dance along. The song is about a strong woman, proclaiming “I will survive” in the face of heartbreak. She is proud, she is fierce, she is free, Gaynor keeps us dancing as she triumphantly walks away from her former lover. The song is classic 1978 disco jazz, but it is so full of soul that it is impossible to ignore.
Cake music is unique from the get go, from the muffled guitar, to the speaking tone singing voice of John McCrea, the indie pop style is nothing like the original song. Moreover the lead singer, no longer a woman, paints the story in an entirely different light. The words stay generally the same, except for one part where McCrea swaps Gaynor’s “stupid” to “f***ing”. The song tries to take on a more mature angle, the funk in the song traded for acoustic guitar.
The tune is the same, the words, more or less are the same as well, but the tone is entirely different. Cake takes an iconic song, and speak it in their own way, even their own rhythm. The same thing that Taylor Swift did to ‘September’ and, as Huffington Post says “manages in three minutes to strip the song of its iconic funk elements, its soul, its rhythm.” And she got a lot of flak for that. They say Swift “lacks the passion, the liveliness, the rhythm and, frankly, the soul to properly honor the song,” and I fully understand that. She lacks the passion, rhythm, and backstory of the original song in the same way that Cake’s cover lacks the undeniable passion and funkiness of I Will Survive. However although it lacks the familiar tones of the song we have all heard so many times, it brings to light something new. A1 says that covering can be dangerous when it is “Contextualizing or misunderstanding something about a song” particularly when it is dealing with race. Cake’s cover of I Will Survive is not a parody, it is not a joke, it is not picking fun of Gaynor or the original work of art, it is something independent and powerful on its own. Even though the stories are told from totally different perspectives, they are both valid, and will both survive in the world of music for a long, long time.
I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkACVDFmeg
I Will Survive (Cake cover) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KJjVMqNIgA
Huffington Post Article – https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-listened-to-taylor-swifts-september-cover-so-yall-wouldnt-have-to_us_5ad0ff15e4b016a07e9c4d82
1A Podcast – https://the1a.org/audio/#/shows/2018-01-18/take-me-on-the-art-of-the-cover-song/113277/@00:00
