BOX WITH THE SOUND OF ITS OWN MAKING IF WE ARE TO IMAGINE THE ACT OF BECOMING NOT AS A SOLITARY ENDEAVOR BUT A COMPLEX WEB OF INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS
This four inch cube is made from a single olive branch. Inside the box are looping field recordings taken over the month of October 2021 from Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles, where the olive tree grows. The recordings are activated by turning the box upside down. This piece is inspired by Robert Morris’s seminal 1961 piece, Box with the Sound of its Own Making. Morris recorded himself building the box and like mine, he left the recordings inside to play on loop. Instead of highlighting the sound of its construction I chose to record another way the box was made: the atmospheric conditions in which the tree itself grew.
Box shows that no individual is isolated from the collective experience of life and survival. We are moving forward into an uncertain future and the need for collectivity, not individualism, in our relations with each other, human and non-human alike is paramount.
Box was part of group show at Luis de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as a silent auction in which proceeds went to the care and restoration of Barnsdall’s olive grove.