An Inability to Make a Sound

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An Inability to Make a Sound

1992

Medium:
Audio walk with film and mixed media

Duration:
10 minutes

Commissioner:
Curated by Susan Bustin for Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, Canada. A French version was curated by Sylvie Fortin for La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City, Canada, 1994

Janet Cardiff

I decided that I would try to use the concepts of a walk for a gallery space. We were renting a large studio in Montreal at the time so I produced it there, using some of the cinderblocks and scaffolding planks that were scattered around the neighborhood. I felt that I needed a route or path, so I set up the planks in the studio to create a circuit. In the various galleries where this piece has been exhibited, we would just rent scaffolding and buy cinderblocks and remount it

sfx woman comes running in from behind and yells to man running with her

Woman I don’t believe you, that’s not what happened.

she runs past, onto the boards, scuffling starts, there are wrestling sounds as two people push each other around. there is the sound of a plank getting pushed and knocked off the blocks. I stop, wait, and then start walking again

Janet Follow the sound of my steps.

Man yells to the woman Ok, you win, you’re better, you’re better, you’re right.

Woman
Fuck you asshole!

Janet
You’re lying to me, I’ve heard this all before, through the walls, waking me in the middle of the night. I listened with a glass so I know.

sound of people scrambling and falling, one person on top of the other. you can hear their wrestling and breathing

Janet This is a trip to find something that I’ve lost … There’s always an inability to make a sound, make a voice, she said this, I said that, I did this … but no real sounds come out. Maybe the largest speaker in the world will tell me what I want to hear.

violin player comes in, then fades out. my footsteps are heard in the room

Janet This is a trip to find something that I’ve lost … There’s always an inability to make a sound, make a voice, she said this, I said that, I did this…but no real sounds come out. Maybe the largest speaker in the world will tell me what I want to hear.

Related Publications

Janet Cardiff
The Walk Book

Thyssen_Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna in collaboration with Public Art Fund, New York

Janet Cardiff, To Touch

1994

Southern Alberta Art Gallery

ISBN 0-921613-58-X