Sound and Syncopation

Katie Stackhouse, Sound and Syncopation, 2023 - Installation view, ceramic, beeswax and gouache, acrylic paint, earth pigments, polymer varnish, oil stick and oil paint on canvas, dimensions variable.

In Sound and Syncopation Artist Katie Stackhouse explored ideas of symbiosis, co-authorship, decay and renewal using sound, sculptures, paintings and videos.

Sound and Syncopation was an exhibition of sculpture, painting and video installation by Katie Stackhouse. The artworks were drawn into dialogue to delve into concepts and processes of symbiosis, co-authorship, decay and renewal, in relation to specific sites: those that have informed the formation and production of the works and the gallery space itself.

The title Sound and Syncopation refers to the musical term of Syncopation: a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm. The works explored processes that living entities and elemental forces undergo as they constantly move in and out of rhythm and synchronize and shape one another.

Included in the exhibition were sculptures informed by the ecology of Birrarung/Yarra river and its intersecting past, present, and future as the waterway is changed by weather forces and human intervention. Other sculptures were designed to be activated through vocal and percussive performances, while in the absence of such direct interaction and stimuli they signaled the potential for sound in their states of silence and stillness. 

Frottaged paintings transmitted the granite surfaces at lutruwita/Tasmania and Wilson’s Promontory onto canvas, creating visual analogues for the multi-sensory stimuli forged in these mountain geologies across deep time. Through this process Stackhouse sought to attribute co-authorship to the sites, sounds and ecologies at these places of origin. Video works documented off-site performances and musical interactions with the sculptural works.

Using image, sound, and sculptural form, Sound and Syncopation tested and pushed the visual and spatial boundaries between media and subject drawing together the elements for a new experimental atmosphere.

When

Location

Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery, 32 Greenwood Ave, Ringwood, 3134, View map