Asia Art Archive Until May 31

The most immediately engaging aspect of Archival Records is that there is nothing to look at. There is no visual on which the prolific art viewer can concentrate their gaze and begin to digest and comprehend. Instead, in our bustling city of taxi horns and jackhammers, we are asked to ignore the perpetual cacophony of sound around us and attempt to really listen.

As a result of his residency from November 2009 to January 2010 at Asia Art Archive, visual and sound artist Cedric Maridet has created an unusual and considerate exhibition that collects and interprets the voices hidden inside the books and manuscripts of the Archive’s shelves. Using selected texts, Maridet explores the area between the written word and its vocal equivalent by placing speakers throughout the library and allowing the sound of his pre-recorded voices to converge with the natural sound of the Archive as it goes about its daily life.

On first impressions, the jumble of mumbling voices that switch and interchange is unsettling, like an incomprehensible momentary lapse into schizophrenia, but once you focus your attention onto one of the dispersed, black, circular speakers the experience is intimate and calming.
Whether you are resting your head on the arm of one of the large orange armchairs or pressing your ear against the glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows, there is always the distinct impression the voices – which speak in a multitude of languages – are speaking directly to you. They seem to be whispering the tales of bygone generations of artists’ struggles and triumphs, and engaging your imagination in the visceral way that only spoken stories can.

Mary Agnew