arteles_catalogue_2014

MUSIC BEGINS WHERE THE POSSIBILITIES OF LANGUAGE END
I created a collection of large-scale visual poetry works.
Each work is a representation or translation of a musical
composition by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The project
responds to a quote and challenge from Sibelius himself:
“Music begins where the possibilities of language end.”
Inspired by Modernist writing that developed in Sibelius’ time,
each work is made up of at least three layers of poetry. They
feature the voice of the music, the voice of the composer, the
voice of musical critics, analysts and biographers, as well as
my own voice in dealing with the complexities or failures of
impossible translations. The voices respond to each other, often
contradicting, disagreeing, or misunderstanding. These layers
are then printed on a large scale, presenting a text-based form
as a visual artwork with their own shape, colour and composition.
The form of each poem is inspired by musical structures,
shapes and movements within each composition, but still
concede to the limitations of reading and writing text. The
poems both glorify and humanise the figure of Sibelius,
and are all affected by my own context and personality.
Works such as “Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Op. 36)” contain
cohesive structures to provide an attempt to translate the
energy of a vibrant musical work, while “Finlandia (Op. 26)” is an
onslaught of text and footnotes, providing an impossible task of
summarising such a grand musical and nationalistic statement.
The overall collection is a humorous and energetic take on the
limitations of language, the problems of translating media,
embracing cultural differences and subjective viewpoints through
poetry, as well as a celebration of Sibelius’ personality and musical
intuition, and a showcase of the storm of words that sit behind
everything we do, even when nothing needs to be said.