Memory Like Water by Matt Rogalsky Saturdays, January 3 - 31 2-8 p.m.
In Memory Like Water, which revisits the idea of water as a metaphor for memory, the voices of people recounting their earliest memories are used to shape the sounds of water in motion. In each of eight loudspeakers, an individual is paired with a watery location (streams, rivers and lakes recorded in Ontario, Vermont and New York State). The streams of sound are continuous; for the most part the original voice recordings are submerged, and used to shape the water by imposing on it their frequency content, rather than being heard directly. Whispers of the voices occasionally become directly audible, however, especially when listening to one speaker at close range. Matt Rogalsky's work as a media artist often focuses on exploration of abject, invisible/inaudible, or ignored streams of information. Since 1985 his performances and installations have been seen and heard around North America and Europe. Most recently he presented the installation When he was in high school in Texas, Eric Ryan Mims used a similar arrangement to detect underground nuclear tests in Nevada, in a 2006 solo show at the Agnes Etherington Art Center in Kingston Ontario. A double CD documenting the past ten years of live performances, also entitled Memory Like Water, is available imminently on XI Records. More information: www.mrogalsky.net