Happy birthday, Art
Video Pool reminds that creativity is one of our greatest assets
Stacey Abramson

The unheard and occasionally forgotten sounds of our surroundings are unconventionally relayed in the latest exhibition at Video Pool.

Featuring works by Garth Hardy and the team of Darsha Hewitt and Stéphanie Brodeur, Video Pool’s latest opened in conjunction with the organization’s annual celebration of Art’s Birthday. And yes, that would be Art with a capital A.

Begun in 1963 by artist Robert Fillou, the celebration sees art scenesters from all over the world gather independently to celebrate the existence of art. It is a bit odd, sure, but the events that occur each year in Winnipeg are always one hell of an arty party.

Anyway, at this particular opening I was able to experience the sounds and soundtracks of the exhibit first-hand.

Hardy’s work — which is currently in the stairwell of the Artspace building — began the evening with a symphony of the everyday. The sound piece …and I thought Guy Debord was dead takes listeners through a series of clicks, noises and notes.

While chaotic and noisy, the piece still feels familiar and somehow comfortable as the sounds take it on a journey through a cityscape. With the hums and bangs, the barest bones of city life come through Hardy’s work.

The piece is actually interactive, as Hardy encourages participants to climb into the various levels and sounds of the work. With each step listeners will experience the voiceless sounds that fill the streets and environments of the city. Although industrial, it’s still musical because sporadic notes and nameless tunes are speckled throughout the creaking of wooden floors and booming surprises.

Hewitt and Brodeur’s Personal Soundtrack Emitters look like primitive wooden iPod shuffles, and the duo treats sound art in a similarly stripped-down manner. At Art’s Birthday, in the noisy backdrop of Club Desire, I walked around wearing a personal soundtrack emitter, not knowing exactly what I would hear.

The sounds made me feel like I was swimming underwater in a fuzzy aural environment. Hewitt and Brodeur sucked all booming background sounds out and filled my eardrums with the true sound of my voice, breath and those in close proximity to me (who admittedly had some fun singing songs into my device). Much like Hardy, the artists here aim to engage listeners with a familiar soundscape that is too often forgotten.

One of the major drawbacks of innovative new media works such as these is that accessibility is sometimes lost in the confusion of the work. These pieces can be enjoyed by anyone who walks in, but not everyone is going to understand them.

My advice? Experience them but don’t worry about ‘getting’ them. It will be worth it.