I have made a 12" vinyl sound work for FOAM, a collection of one-off commissioned 12” dub plate records presented in interactive gallery settings.
The installation “aMasS_a_mASs” by Mat Jenner is presented at Bergen kunsthall NO. 5 March 2016 in collaboration with Borealis. Central to the installation is a presentation of Jenner’s ongoing project FOAM, a peripatetic and growing collection of commissioned artist’s sound works. Initiated by Jenner in 2013, the project is considered at once an archive, sculpture and performance that focuses on the physical and social aspect of listening and artistic experience. With over 125 artistic works accumulated so far, each artwork is presented as a unique, one-off 12” dub plate record, which visitors are invited to select and play within the gallery space.
FOAM exists in contrast to the pervasive availability of digital media content, with Jenner enforcing an artificial scarcity. Each record is unique, neither replicated or broadcast online and can only be listened to in situ in the gallery space. Much like a needle on a spinning record, FOAM draws people to its center, requiring an audience to interact with it. It is through this action that Jenner intends to manifest slowness and presence as an aesthetic, in an era when speed and immediacy is expected and demanded.
With the support of the Hordaland Fylkeskommune, and in collaboration with Jenner, Borealis and Bergen Kunsthall have commissioned a number of artists living and working in Hordaland Fylkeskommune and the UK to make new sound works for inclusion in FOAM: Anne Lise Stenseth, Trond Lossius, Leander Djønne, Magnhild Øen Nordahl (in cooperation with Omar Johnsen, Kristin Austreid og Erik Johan Bringsvor), and Lillian Wilkie. These new works are available for audiences to listen to along with existing artworks in the archive. Full details of contributing artists and works are available at www.ffooaamm.org.
Trond Lossius
Greetings from Bergen
Side A
1 – Harbour Ambience 4:18
2 – Marathoners 1:50
3 – Bikers and Speaker 3:08
Side B
1 – Street Musician and Fences 2:44
2 – Sunday Morning 7:09
Thanks to BEK (www.bek.no) for access to equipment, and Stian Remvik for help with the design of the record labels.
