audio works > coming to unconsciousness 2010

installation view of sculpture, HOCS gallery
coming to unconsciousness (installation view)
photo, wood, recorded audio
36in. x 72in.
2010

Sculptural iteration of the installation coming to unconsciousness that was installed in the Maxon Mills building in Wassaic, NY. This piece includes a built wooden sculpture that acts as a "fragment" of the wall of the building; a photograph of the parallel stairwell and shaftway that the piece was installed in; and a mix of the audio played back from behind the "fragment" wall.

In the Wappinger First Nation langauge, the name Washaic means “land of difficult access.” Physical access to a space is different than tapping into it’s psychological perception. coming to unconsciousness changed the immediate physical experience of Maxon Mills by offering access to an invisible historical narrative from different perspectives: a composition of different audio references for historical moments of the area that may or may not be meaningful for the listener (the Wappinger Nation, now displaced; the Harlem railroad, one of the first to run from an urban center; Eagle Brand’s condensed milk, a forerunner to industrialization in agriculture; etc.) As the listener moves up and down the stairwell, they use sound as well as visual and physical perceptions to understand their location. The fragmented audio recording unfolded through its duration between meaningful and understandable to ambient and difficult to comprehend.