artist
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Canada
Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller live and work in British Columbia. They have been collaborating since 1995 and are internationally recognized for their immersive multimedia sound installations and audio/video walks. Their works create transcendent multisensory experiences which draw the viewer into often unsettling narratives.
They have recently shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico (2019); Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2018); 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan (2017); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2017); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark (2015); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2015); Menil Collection, Houston (2015); 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013); and Documenta 13, Kassel (2012).
In 2011 they received Germany’s Käthe Kollwitz Prize, and in 2001, represented Canada at the 49th Venice Biennale, for which they received the Premio Speciale and the Benesse Prize.
Janet Cardiff & Georges Bures Miller
FOREST (for a thousand years…), 2012
Duration: 28 min. loop
22 loudspeakers mounted in a forest setting, amplifiers, playback computer.
In this soundscape, the dissonance of whistling shells, artillery fire, distant screams, and the ephemeral voices of singers merges with the natural environment. As visitors settle on a tree stump, they become attuned to an intricate interplay between the actual forest and a mediated sonic narrative, where the boundary between what is “live” and what is artfully constructed dissolves. Each shift in the wind, each bird call, seamlessly fuses with the abrupt thunder of war. The result is an uncanny suspension of time, stirring both unease and reverence for the forest’s layered history. As part of Between / Worlds: Resonant Ecologies, FOREST reveals a dynamic liminality between human conflict and organic life, urging us toward a horizontal reorientation that acknowledges these colliding worlds as dynamically entwined (for a thousand years… ).
Thanks to:
The Canada Council for the Arts, dOCUMENTA (13), Carolyn Christoff Bakargiev, Christoph Platz, The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, d&b audiotechnik, Michael Case, Ralf Zuleeg, Simon Johnston, Nokia Concert Hall Tallin, Estonia Aivar Sirelpuu,
Ron Elliot, Heather Pawse, Arvo Pärt, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Luhring Augustine.
Speakers supplied by d&b audiotechnik, Germany
Airplane Recordings: John Leonard
Horse Wrangler: David Miller
Bulldozer: John Thielman
Tree felling: Jeremy Ayotte
Explosions: Pacific Blasting, Banah Blasting, Cody Newman
Horses and Wagon: Sean Newton, Robert Kimber, Greta, Meaghan, Caravan Farm Theatre
Sounds, Voices, and Various SFX: Tristan Mackinlay, Rachel Mercer, Jason Chan, Catherine Spencer, Amber Choo, Maggie Shirley, Kevin McCarty, Dayle Mousseau, Kevin Jesuino, Liz Dumontet, Torin McLachlan, Tanja Woloshen, Bee Wolf Ray, Clare Marie Daniela Rutherford Marquez, Peter Cloud Panjoyah, Albini Lapierre, Jeremy Williams, Sir Jason Dyer, Bob Aschmann, Alison Joy Cross, Phillip Carter, Silas Crowe, Trinity Pitt, Karl Ostermann, Scott, Kyle Miller, Chelsea Lovde, Tacita Dean, Mathew Hale, Jeffrey Eugenides
Production: Zev Tiefenbach, Annika Rixen, Alison Joy Cross
Installation: Carlo Crovato
Construction (Canada): Eric Fagervik
Mixing and Editing and Sound Design: Titus Maderlechner
Music:
Nunc dimittis by Arvo Pärt, performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conducted by Heli Jürgenson,
managed by Esper Linnamägi,
recorded at the Nokia Concert Hall, Tallin, Estonia
Toy Piano Composition by Janet Cardiff Banshee by George Bures Miller
