| Kaleb
Bennett : Sky Noise Map: proposal for a public artwork
The
grassy mound (near the lagoon), Wellington Waterfront
December 2nd-20th 2003
Proudly sponsored by Wellington Waterfront Ltd
With Sky Noise Map: proposal for a public artwork
Bennett considers the hidden implications of tracking and
navigating technologies, in particular the Global Positioning
System. Bennett explores ideas of paranoia, conspiracy theory,
panoptic surveillance, loss of anonymity and privacy, technological
intrusion and discordances between the artificial and the
natural. As Bennett says, "the physical reality of a system such as
GPS, when looked at from afar, can be both chilling and
impressive - or perhaps absurd".
The
'stuff' of Sky Noise Map is physically contained
within the Art Box, but is comprehended in conjunction with
the vantage point afforded by the grassy mound. The work
is "constructed without any sheen of decency or visual
politeness: a level of visibility that the systems referenced
by the work do not have"; its sculptural wiry guts
suspended, dormant, until it is illuminated at dusk, becoming
"a sort of beacon; a 3-D (dis)information panel; a
trig point". Sky Noise Map locates a point
on the map of Wellington, from which Bennett references
the greater cityscape.
From the artist's statement
As
a proposal for a public artwork, Sky Noise Map
functions as a brazen gesture in the midst of a city landscape
densely populated by slick public sculptures, vapid advertising
messages, and corny seasonal light displays. Thinking of
the work on a larger scale, one gets a feeling for what
it represents and the possibilities it contains. Such possibilities
combat the city's presiding values regarding format and
landscape, and pose the question of "who decides what
goes where, and why?" The hill is slated for demolition/redevelopment,
and I wanted to use the site while it still exists - to
prove what can be done in the urban public arena. The Art
Box Project in general functions as an excellent indicator
of such possibilities. Kaleb
Bennett is a Wellington based artist, with recent works
concentrating on sound installation. He has participated
in numerous exhibitions, including solo shows: Dislocation
(Silence) as part of Wellington Fringe NZ Festival
2003, and Interference a sound/object installation
at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington. Overseas works
include Disposable Artworks in 2001, in which art
works were made and gifted to the public in Copenhagen,
Amsterdam, Barcelona and Tangier. He has worked collaboratively
with many artists, including Eugene Hansen, at the Hirschfeld
Gallery, in Port Replicator.
Technical
assistance provided by Sasha Marks.
Review
Mark
Amery: Across the Fish to an Albatross, Dominion
Post 19.12.03
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