artist
Jacob Kirkegaard
Denmark
Outdoor work in exhibition + concert 14 June.
The work of Jacob Kirkegaard (b. 1975, Denmark) explores ways to reflect on complex, unnoticed or unapproachable conditions and environments. In 1981, at the age of six, Kirkegaard made his first sound recordings and in 1994 he was introduced to the world of sound art.
His works have treated themes such as radioactivity in Chernobyl, melting ice in the Arctic, border walls in global and metaphorical contexts, immersive acoustic explorations into global waste management, and processes related to when a human being dies. Using his recordings of firearms, grenades and tanks, his most recent work explores the sound of warfare orchestrated for the Royal Lifeguard’s Music Corps. His current work listens to the mechanical elements of agriculture and food production. Since 2006 Kirkegaard has also been extensively researching, recording and creating works using otoacoustic emissions; tones generated from the actual human ear. The core element and method of Jacob Kirkegaard’s work derive from the use of sound recordings of the tangible aspects from its intangible themes.
Jacob Kirkegaard
The Grey Zone (NeverWhere), 2025
In this passage through the forest, sound recordings of a radioactive space are combined with the natural sounds of the forest. The recordings of a radioactive swimming pool were captured inside the Zone of Alienation in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The sound of water dripping from the ceiling over the swimming pool is played through speakers placed in trees alongside the natural pathway.
The work is a tribute to Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris. At the end of the film, the protagonist returns to Earth after disturbing encounters with alien sentience on the planet of Solaris. He looks at his friend through the window to his house. Inside his house, water drips from the ceiling and realities are reversed.
PERMANENT CLOUD
Concert
PERMANENT CLOUD captures the sound of humanity’s rapidly growing digital memory stored in the mechanical heart of the Cloud. The work is composed from sound and vibration recorded by Jacob Kirkegaard at a massive data center in Germany with sensors placed directly on different parts of its servers.
