2022 — Frieze London with The Approach Gallery, London, UK

1.618 ellipse, dual resonance, 2022
Wooden panel painted in white, two polished brass beams and beater
85 x 65 x 25 cm
33 7/16 x 25 9/16 x 9 13/16 in.

Since 2017, I have been developing a variety of brass sculptural instruments, in close collaboration with renowned manufacturer Thein Brass in Germany. Made from a unique metal alloy, the pieces fully exist as sculptures, while being able to be activated as percussion instruments.

More recently, for a series of works that I like to refer as “acoustic paintings”, I decided to present polished brass lines in curved wooden foundations acting as resonance amplifiers. When activated with their corresponding beaters, the brass sculptures produce deep overtones while generating new fields of resonance that travel throughout the space.

This new piece “1.618 ellipse, dual resonance” (2022) makes use of the elliptic shape, already explored extensively in the course of my career. In mathematics, an ellipse (from the Greek word ‘élleipsis’) literally translates to "omission"; "absence". Here, the wooden ellipse, cut in dimensions according to the golden ratio, hosts two brass lines that are seemingly identical. They were in fact both tuned differently during their forging and hammering. The result is a sonic dialogue between unique overtones, exploring duality and (im)materiality.