JÓNSI by tanyabonakdargallery

Jรณnsi

What is the shape of sound? What does it feel like?

experiments harkening back to those of the Italian

Can we smell it? How does it move through your body

Futurists who championed the revolutionary aspects of

and what kind of sensations does it trigger? These

noise in opposition to formal music, Jónsi’s approach

are the questions that are posed by Jónsi in his first

is far more interested in exploring the phenomenolog-

exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Los Angeles.

ical complication and extension of the senses as an

Best known for producing distinctive musical sounds

antidote to a world in which we are constantly con-

ranging from hypnotic ambient incantations to driving

fronted by the agitated white noise of contemporary

sonic waves as a member of the band Sigur Rós, Jón-

civilization. In his work there is an overarching attempt

si has expanded his artistic practice over the past few

to assert the primacy of the auditory, the tactile, and

years in a series of collaborations with visual artists

the visual in helping the human organism navigate its

such as Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, Merce Cun-

way through this unmoored and volatile world.

ningham and most recently the artist and composer Carl Michael von Hausswolf with whom he formed the

In one work, Í blóma (In bloom), Jónsi takes a group

musical duo Dark Morph. In the wake of these collabo-

of fourteen institutional public address loudspeakers

rations, Jónsi’s most recent solo aesthetic explorations

that you might see at a sporting event or on a prison

have resulted in a series of immersive installations that

yard and arranges them in a shape reminiscent of the

sculpt with sound as they ask us to meditate on the

leaves of the highly poisonous Foxglove flower, also

liminal threshold between our bodies and the world

known by its Latin name Digitalis purpurea. A highly

around us.

toxic flower, Foxglove can cause hallucinations, heart palpitations and even death. Surprisingly, it’s active

In a series of three new gallery-based works, Jónsi

ingredient is also used in a cardiac medication known

riffs on the invocation of sensory inversion in Goethe’s

as digoxin, so this plant has the dual contradictory

fifth Roman Elegy in which the Romantic poet makes

aspects of being both noxious and therapeutic at the

a connection between the experience of a lover’s body

same time.

and a classical marble sculpture with the phrase, “see

with a feeling eye, feel with a seeing hand.” In Jónsi’s

This wavering between the dangerous and the restor-

remix, Goethe’s advice to experience the world in a

ative is echoed sculpturally by a series of chrome-plat-

different way is given a sonic update that might read

ed butt-plugs which act as the stamen of this industrial

as follows: “hear with a feeling ear, feel with a hearing

flower. Emanating from this sculpture is a sonic

hand.” Seeing, hearing, feeling – each of these senses

tapestry of human voices – multiple iterations of the

collapse upon one another in Jónsi’s work as sound

artist’s own voice – which have been layered across

takes a concrete form and the tactile and the auditory

processed field recordings of the normally impercep-

merge into a surprising synesthesia. While one might

tible sounds generated by the flowers themselves. In

read these works within the lineage of bombastic noise

this call and response between flora and human fauna

we hear evocations of pain and pleasure alongside

created by the artist with his own voice – ocean waves,

a striving for intelligibility and the melancholy of a

breaths, and finally a whispered version of an old

frustrated desire to communicate across a trans-spe-

Icelandic poem about the sea. As the speakers move

cies divide.

with the wave-like action of the panels, these sounds created with the human voice wash over the visitor in

Walking into the main room of the gallery the visitor

the hope of provoking the bodily resonance associated

is confronted by a nearly empty neutral white space

with ASMR.

with overly bright light. This suggestion of a minimalist depiction of heaven evokes the sterile light of the

Another important element in Jónsi’s work is his

mysterious room at the conclusion to Stanley Kubrick’s

embrace of the sense of smell as an expanded field

2001: A Space Odyssey while being punctuated by

of artistic practice. Having worked with a perfume

sounds emanating from ten hidden speakers and two

organ for the past few years he has experimented with

sub-woofers. Producing as much a space as a feeling,

the alchemy of perfume creation which, upon closer

this ten-channel hallucinatory audio track encircles

examination, seems to rely one part on chemistry and

and penetrates our bodies transporting us to a place

another on an elemental poetry. For this exhibition the

that is nowhere – in the original sense of the word

artist has created three individual scents connected

utopia. Awash in this mesmerizing sonic bath, a human

to each work that run the gamut from the pungently

voice – that of the artist – sends out signals into a

acrid Cadaverine– a scent common to decomposing

white void that transports us to somewhere outside of

flesh and sperm which emanates from his Foxglove

ourselves while very much insisting that we listen to

sculpture – to a scent reminiscent of seaweed that will

the very bodies that constitute our subjectivity. Hearing

be paired with his ASMR invocation of the sounds of

is feeling is seeing is being.

ocean waves.

The final room of the gallery veers into darkness with

Taken together, these works speak to the power of

a work indebted to the recent popular explorations

Jónsi’s sonic, spatial and scent-driven interventions

of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)

to upset the traditional division of the senses in the

in which a highly particularized sensory input such

creation of a world of sensory confusion in which the

as whispering triggers a mildly euphoric static-like

olfactory, the haptic and the auditory collapse into one

or tingling sensation on the skin of an individual. In

another in a poetic somatic reverie.

another work, Jónsi has created a wave-like structure of eight black ceiling panels which undulate slowly back and forth. Attached to each of these panels is a hyper-directional speaker projecting ASMR sounds

In the sound-based sculpture I blóma (In bloom), fourteen horn speakers are arranged to resemble a Foxglove flower. The petals of the Foxglove, which is known for being both toxic and therapeutic, are here adorned with a series of butt plugs, which serve sculpturally, as the fertilizing organ of the piece. Over the speakers the artist’s voice, recorded in a number of iterations, is layered over field recordings of actual Foxglove flowers. Using a high technology recording device Jónsi tracked and captured the electric impulse of the foxglove flowers, petals, and stem. Using digital software, he has translated the electric frequency into a composition of rhythm and pitch which Jónsi vocalizes. In addition, field recordings of Icelandic birds and other fauna as well as synthesized versions of Jónsi’s voice are interjected into the overall sonar assembly. This sonic mating call between artist and flowers invokes notions of pleasure and pain, while bringing forth the conceptions of cross-species communications. Throughout the space, a slight yet overarching scent permeates. Named cadaverine this fragrance is created from the combination of dead animals and sperm— evoking associations of bodily decay and pleasures. While Í blóma (In bloom) activates the intellect through the sensorial, it also calls attention to the male body and to its sexuality. Incorporating sex toys, sperm and phallocentric language the artist renders the flower and the sexed body as sensual organisms through fragrance, sound and vision.

Í blóma (In bloom) 2019 Sixteen-channel sound installation; fourteen PA speakers, electrical wiring, two speakers, metal, wood, acrylic paint, chrome butt plugs, cadaverine scent Sculpture: 116 x 87 x 44 inches; 294.6 x 221 x 111.8 cm Duration: 21 minutes

This is a preview clip. Full documentation is available upon request.

ร blรณma (In bloom)

This is a preview clip. Full documentation is available upon request.

The minimalist, almost sterile, space of the twelve-channel sound installation Whiteout evokes the natural phenomena where earth and sky blend into one another, and the horizon disappears - leaving no point of visual reference. In this insinuated yet immersive work 12 invisible speakers emanate sound recordings of the artist's voice combined with field recordings of natural elements such as wind and snow, while an ozone scent pervades the space. Awash in what has been defined as a 'sonic bath’, the viewer is enveloped by the invisible presence of the audible. In a space where visual orientation has been rendered obsolete, the human voice becomes the sensory anchor— serving as a constant reminder that for Jónsi, hearing is feeling is seeing is being. Constructed as a 5-act piece, the sonic manifestations range from the choral to the abstract as well as to synthesized alien-like sounds. The vibration of the wall panels, which subsequently move and vibrate the air in the room create an immersive, 360-degree experience of lush sound that simultaneously radiates around and engulfs the viewer. In a sense, Whiteout functions as an instrument of its own accord, and like any musical instrument, creates a moving experience from the visually imperceptible and the abstract.

Hvítblinda (Whiteout) 2019 Twelve-channel sound installation; ten speakers, two subwoofers, aluminum, LED lighting, ozone scent Dimension variable Duration: 20 minutes

HvĂtblinda (Whiteout)

This is a preview clip. Full documentation is available upon request.

A darkened black room is canopied by a structure consisting of eight black ceiling panels. Moving in tandem in a wave like formation, the panels mimic and mirror each other as a simulacrum of the organic form. Within the canopy, hyper-directional speakers play sound recordings of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breathing, whispering and reciting of an old Icelandic poem about the sea. Sharing a quality similar to that of a ray of light, the hyper-directional speakers afford the possibility of focusing a beam of sound to a specific point in space. As the viewer moves in the darkness, and the canopy contorts around its frame, so too does the presence of the sound - shifting and morphing in varying degrees of visceral effects. The physical motion of the panels, like a wave in nature itself, literally moves the sound through the air. A scent of seaweed permeates the darkened room, constituting as an olfactory echo of a wave. Choreographed with the undulated ceiling panels, the movement of sound through the environment calls attention to the body and to our relation with the world and with nature.

Svartalda (Dark wave) 2019 Eight-channel sound installation; eight hyper directional speakers, electric motor, aluminum panels, aluminum bars, fabric, carpet, seaweed scent 233 x 158 x 132 inches; 591.8 x 401.3 x 335.3 cm Duration: 20 minutes

husbands (detail), 2018, Installation at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles, 2018 Photo by Brica Wilcox

Svartalda (Dark wave)

In this glass and resin sculpture JĂłnsi brings together 2 recurring motifs in his work- male sexuality and the natural world. Here multiple glass sex toys protrude from the sculptureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s center creating a formation reminiscent of coral. Beautiful and menacing, this elegant formation utilizes phallic forms as a way to explore our dominance over nature.

Oral Reef 2019 Glass butt plugs, resin 12 x 24 x 24 inches; 30.5 x 61 x 61 cm (sculpture) 40 x 30 x 30 inches; 101.6 x 76.2 x 76.2 cm (pedestal)

Oral Reef

Published on occasion of the exhibition

Jónsi Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles November 16, 2019 — January 9, 2020 All works © Jónsi Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles