Metamorphosis Przemiana
above: View of Metamorphosis - Przemiana at Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, 2024-, curated by Mariusz Andrzejczyk [to hear the music click on the sound icon]
metamorphosis-przemiana
2024-
Cast iron, sound and music composition
Duration: permanent public sculpture
Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko commission
Opened to public on July 27, 2024
Metamorphosis (Sound Sculpture), Laumeier Sculpture Park,commission, 2024-, photo: Whitney Curtis
credits
Sculpture created by and music composed by Monika Weiss
Vocalists in Movement 5: Amanda Casarez, Caleb Diaz, Levi Gentry, Andy Lewis,
Claire McFarland, Tushar Menon, Jason Oberstein, and Daniel Sosebee
Vocalists in Movement 6: Katie Beyers and Ingrid Piazza
Sound recording engineers: Jeff Allen and Cole Makuch
Sound was mastered at Experimental Media Arts EMA, University of Arkansas, special thanks to Adam Hogan
Curated by Mariusz Andrzejczyk, curator, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko
LOCATION
Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko
ul. Topolowa 1, 26-505 Orońsko. Poland
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
The iron sculpture Metamorphosis - Przemiana created by Monika Weiss resembles a tall column or a slender suit of armor. Standing among the trees in the Orońsko Sculpture Park, at certain times of day, it emits a subtle sound, prompting the viewer to stop and reflect. As the artist says: “this work captures and prolongs the moment in which Daphne, the mythological nymph, escapes rape by becoming a tree. I composed the sound, imagining what it would sound like and what I would feel if my skin hardened and slowly changed into the bark of a tree, and my voice became the whispering leaves. The column is skin that has hardened and turned into armor. In the myth, escaping violence is marked by the death of a woman, but also by reincarnation into a new form of life”.
The 35-minute piece, “released” two times a day (12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.), was composed in six parts. The first four are based on the artist’s improvisations on an acoustic piano, later transformed into digitally manipulated layers of sound. The fifth part is composed for eight voices, which were also digitally processed to create microtonal relationships. In the sixth part, we hear two female voices conducting a musical dialogue with each other, juxtaposed with the sounds of drums, the basis of which is the artist hitting the sculpture with her bare hands.
- Mariusz Andrzejczyk
