Unaccompanied: Sound installation
A 20 Channel Audio Installation in support of artist Kate Capshaw’s portrait series entitled, “Unaccompanied.” The series debuted at the Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus Georgia. From Kate’s artist statement:
“Unaccompanied is a project that began in late 2016. It is an artistic outgrowth of Capshaw’s inquiry into the invisibility of youth experiencing a range of challenges, including homelessness. In collaboration with community youth centers across the United States, she painted her first portraits in Los Angeles followed by seven cities and towns including San Francisco, Fargo, Porcupine, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York City. Working closely with sound artist Joshua-Michéle Ross, Capshaw invited individuals from her portraits and the youth centers to include their own voices in the work.”
From the Sound Installation wall text:
What is one thing you would like people to know about you?
What is your earliest memory of what you wanted to do when you got older?
Can you describe an object that you hold dear?
What is a place that holds special meaning for you?
These are some of the questions sound artist Joshua-Michéle Ross asked young people at youth centers across the United States where artist Kate Capshaw painted her portraits.
The interviews were presented in a 20 channel audio experience. Each wall-mounted speaker is dedicated to a single voice as a means of centering the individual. Pendant speakers overhead play an evolving soundtrack of composed music, field recordings and sound taken directly from interviews.
Listening is a means of closing the distance between us.
It is my hope that by slowing down and paying attention we may rediscover old methods of finding compassion and fellowship. These methods are harder to practice in a hyper-accelerated digital culture.
Note to listeners. This is a multi-channel audio installation optimized for playback in a museum-setting. The following audio is a 2-channel (stereo) mix. With that compression the spatial and experiential aspect is lost.
Isaiah, Kvonte, Leilani, Harley Ray, Anubis, Sharday, Nakiesha, Estella*
Note: Estella is a Lakota youth from the Pine Ridge Girls School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota—a community rich in culture and spiritual traditions that has faced significant economic challenges. Estella is not unaccompanied, but wants to raise awareness about how Native Americans have been unseen and unaccompanied by this country, as well as the many youth on her reservation that experience homelessness.”
Rae, Deshone, Marcus, Hanif, Robert, Job, Sharold-Delilah, Claresa
