2019
MAMPROJECT 26: CURTIS TAMM
Sound sculpture (8.1 channels), chalk
Curated by Kenichi Kondo
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Through a research practice influenced by the history of improvisational music, Curtis Tamm (b. 1987 in California) locates cracks within Western systems of knowledge to expose playful propositions for what it means to be human. His recent work explores human and non-human responses to natural catastrophe.
During 2017 and 2018 Tamm traveled throughout Japan gathering hundreds of sound recordings. He met with seismologists to learn about the nature of waves, listened to the chants of blind shamans, and spent time with an engineer investigating the ability of other animal species to predict earthquakes. One such animal is the catfish, also the subject matter of Edo-period Namazu-e — satirical woodblock prints which hold the catfish responsible for the occurrence of earthquakes. In the spirit of Tamm’s work, the impact of an earthquake is both traumatic and rejuvenating.
The artist’s field-recordings attempt to follow the radiation of seismic waves outwards as they vibrate through the whiskers of the Namazu, resonate with the syncopated buzz of cicadas, and chime against the ritual process of casting and striking multi-tonne bells known as Bonsho. Tamm explored ways in which waves interact with his own body by standing inside these temple bells. He surveyed the unique character of a dozen different bells throughout Kyoto and Ibaraki, recording rarely-heard frequencies which resonate and decay within the large open cavity — an empty space known as the bell’s “womb”.
The centerpiece of this latest MAM Project (Spelling for Protection Against Oneself) is a sound sculpture which invites visitors into the womb of the Bonsho. Tamm summons a state of deep listening within the body, a catfish-like condition in which our senses are recast by bandwidths usually obscured by noise.
Project support by Adam Audio, Arcus Project, and the Art and Technology Lab at LACMA. Illustration support: Andrew Paul Hunter, Maki Ohkojima
