Sonic Agency
When Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse cut off their own braids in an act of protest that went viral, they also demonstrated the potential of sound as resistance—a tactic of performance, protest and even ASMR videos
Current Issue: Spring 2021
Frequencies
Available from March 15 to June 14, 2021
This issue came together during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when separation has become a routine, although not necessarily pleasurable, experience. Lockdowns in many parts of the country have meant attuning to different ways of engaging with art, as gallery visits are restricted and art spaces offer programming online. This was an opportunity to spend time with practices that prioritize multisensory experiences, not only the visual but also the sonic and the haptic. These sit alongside registers—including different forms of communication or transmission—that exist beyond human perception. Together, these aesthetic experiences consider the role of frequencies as modulators of artistic practice. Many of the artists here focus specifically on listening, rethinking their relationships to sound and finding intimacy and connection beyond imagery. At a time when screen culture is a pervasive and all-encompassing aspect of culture at large, the artists in this issue ask for a pause, a realignment, to think about the aesthetic experiences that come through different ways of sensing.
This Issue
Features
Practising the Unattainable
Indigenous dream-world data, temporal spirals and technologies to come—a poet and performer talks to an artist and composer about transformative ways of tuning in
The Angel’s Share
Rae Johnson‘s angels catalogue the passage of a body through time
Listening Feels
For Black artists, when visuality doesn’t offer justice, the complexity of sound art offers an intimacy that is both political and poetic
Gambletron’s Technical Submission
With equal parts chance and skill, Gambletron—a performer, musician, artist, circuit-bender and career experimenter—orchestrates the perfect conditions for chaotic harmony
Listening in Reciprocity
The natural world invites us into the indescribable yet intimately heard—what does it mean to move beyond hearing and truly listen?
Spotlight
Circular Logics
A national survey of artists who build worlds beyond the visible, from the Frequencies issue
Artist Project
A sonic score available for listening on either a phone or a turntable—technologies from different eras that unite in a register of frequency
Cover Image
Ínyan Iyé (Telling Rock)
Detail. 2019. Immersive installation with song, power, sound, processors, machine-learning decisions, handmade circuitry, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, silicon and fibreglass. Dimensions variable. Photo: Colin Conces. Copyright Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha.
Contributors
Oracle
Mirrors, Mandalas and Seeing the Self
Chrysanne Stathacos talks about her new installation for the Gwangju Biennale and psychic communications and connections amid pandemic loss
Poetry
Siren’s Radio
Collage
A How-To Guide to DIY Pirate Radio
Adornment
Desperate Living, for E.S.
Art Market Guide
Reviews
On Charles Campbell and the Underrepresentation of Caribbean Art in Canada
The Jamaica-born, Victoria-based artist has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami—but only recently had his first Vancouver solo show
Other reviews include: Francesca Ekwuyasi on Nanuk & Bibi at Nocturne Halifax; Jayne Wilkinson on Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto; Joni Low on “Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts” at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; Ossie Michelin on Thomassie Mangiok’s board game Nunami; Amelia Wong-Mersereau on “La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux” at the Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal; Leah Sandals on Yvonne Mullock at Norberg Hall, Calgary; Louis Fermor on Milton Lim at The New Gallery, Calgary; Adrienne Huard on Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto; Lauren Fournier on “Reflecting Dis-ease: eh ateh pahinihk ahkosiwin” at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Irene Bindi on Gelare Khoshgozaran at Plug In ICA, Winnipeg; and Joy Xiang on “Moving Ether Way” at Trinity Square Video, Toronto
Overheard
Resonance
As a soprano, I mastered arias in Italian, German and French first—the Inuttitut songs of my roots came later
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