Blog

Silk+Sound

Mary Tsiongas and Jim Roeber

Think of a museum as a cocoon spun by people; that can help gestate new states of being from the stuff of the past. With this work, Silk + Sound, we are fortunate to be helping with the spinning of one such cocoon. We have chosen to honor the flight-hobbled genius Bombyx Mori that was engineered to share its silk; and the cottage industrialists who often nurtured, spun, and wove this precious thread; but, also, to attend to the wondrous/monstrous machines and factories that mechanized the human process of silk production. These digital images are printed on archival paper. The spiral indicates the location of the stitched speaker.

These prints will range in size, but most will be less than 24”x 24”; with the size of the speaker being relative to the size of the print. Please note, these pieces are meant to be exhibited in a gallery space and they will emit the sound you are hearing here on the stitched speaker.

With Our Wings combines a found photo from the Tbilisi State Silk Museum Library with matching sounds found in other archives; It is played through speakers made of conductive wire stitched into the paper image. The historical image shows the flightless silk moth, Bombyx Mori, bred for silk production more than four thousand years ago.

Number 11 combines a found photo from the Tbilisi State Silk Museum Library with matching sounds found in other archives; played through speakers made of conductive wire stitched into the paper image. The historical image shows imperfect cocoons of the silk moth, Bombyx Mori, that were identified for exclusion from breeding.

Whisperer’s Song is based on materials collected during a visit to the home of Georgian sericulture preservationist Lamara Bejashvili. By combining arrangements of field recordings with an image of Ms. Bejashvili’s hand, and playing them through speakers stitched into the paper image, we’ve tried to invoke an imagined (and possibly imaginary) past in the Georgian countryside. Combining snippets of Ms. Bejashvili’s speaking voice, notes from an old three-string Panduri found in her yard, and recordings of her chickens, spinning wheel, and loom, this crude song does no justice to the rich beauty of traditional Georgian music; nor to the actual sense of Ms. Bejashvili’s words; but hopefully it conjures, for some, the milieu of a preindustrial countryside and cottage industry.

Enclosure combines a found photo from the Tbilisi State Silk Museum Library with matching sounds from other archives which were then rearranged and reprocessed; played through speakers made of conductive wire stitched into the paper image. The historical image shows a woman working a 19th century silk reeling machine.

Artists’ Biographies: 

Mary Tsiongas is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work addresses human relationships to technology and nature through video and digital imagery. Born in Greece and now based in New Mexico, Tsiongas has exhibited and lectured extensively for the past twenty years nationally and internationally. Venues include: ISEA 2014 in Dubai, the Lincoln Center in New York City, Nevada Museum of Art, and the McColl Center in North Carolina. She is the recipient of several grants, awards and residencies including a WESTAF NEA grant, and she was awarded Women to Watch 2015 by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is Professor of Experimental Art + Technology at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. See: https://www.marytsiongas.com/

Jim Roeber is a poet and sound artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His sound practice includes composition, live improv performance, and sound installation; using electronics, woodwinds, and computer-based tools. He has performed in the Nameless Sound series They Who Sound in Houston, TX; as well as performing solo and in ensembles in Houston (at 14 Pews, Khon’s, Axelrad, Bohemeo’s, and the Houston Piano Company) and in Albuquerque, NM (at the University of New Mexico ArtsLab). He sometimes collaborates with life partner Mary Tsiongas on installations, films, and videos.