2015, revised 2017

8-channel sound installation with 8 speakers, 8 repurposed bookshelves; 46 mins

Commissioned by and created with recorded materials provided by the Asia Art Archive (AAA); research support Ingrid Chu and the Asia Art Archive; production assistant Vvzela Kook

”In 2015, I was invited by curator Ingrid Chu at the Asia Art Archive (AAA) to create a new work to mark the AAA’s 15th anniversary. The librarians told me about an archive of over 280 oral histories and conversations with Asian artists spanning some 27 years compiled by the Asian Art historian John Clark. I was taken by Clark’s interview technique. With this technique, Clark asked few questions, but encouraged his interviewees to speak by nudging them along with small vocal cues of ‘Hmms’ and ‘Ahs.’ Sometimes long speechless moments would pass where one notices instead the activities in the room, the noises from the outside, or the music in the background. In this work, the conversations were edited out, leaving only the moments that book-ended the things that were said - the music in the background, the ambient sounds, and Clark’s Hmms and Ahs.”