Serena
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| Three Shapes of a Note (2011) | |
| My
grandfather
strikes a note on the dulcimer and calls out the
three-fold
shape of the note as he hears them, Sing: the hammer hitting the string; the pure emission of sound before it becomes a note Yum: the note emerges, a note that is understood in relation to others in a scale Wun: the sound softening, floating, resonating, fading You have to hear the whole shape of the note, every note. "Gong Gong, how can you tell if a musician knows what they're doing?" His hammed up incredulity resonates in Cantonese, "What's the matter with you? You can see a musician's experience by the way they hold the instrument. You can tell. It's like cooking; some people just heat ingredients until they're edible, but of course, what you really want is a delicious meal." |
 Textile and mixed media sculpture, dimensions variable at the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design in Geneva, Switzerland |