Silent Sound is Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s most ambitious work to date, it is a performance and installation and will be presented as part of the Liverpool Biennial of contemporary art.
On Thursday 14th September 2006 Forsyth and Pollard will stage a uniquely emotive experience which explores the mind’s susceptibility to subliminal suggestion.
The performance will take place before an invited audience in the Small Concert Hall in St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.
In 1865 at St. George’s Hall, Victorian entertainers The Davenport Brothers performed their public séance act to an audience desperately searching for a bridge between the living and the souls of the dead.
Unused for over twenty years, the Small Concert Hall in St. George’s Hall will reopen to host Silent Sound and the artists will perform on the same stage used by The Davenports.
During the performance, the artists are seated onstage inside a soundproof booth, inspired by The Davenport Brothers original ‘Spirit Cabinet’. In unison, they repeat a single sentence throughout the hour-long event. Using their specially created machine this spoken statement is then embedded into a live music recital. The message will be inaudible to the audience’s ears, but transmitted subliminally to their subconscious.
The artists have joined forces with two uniquely talented collaborators. Jason Pierce, leader of the critically acclaimed band Spiritualized, has written the musical composition and will perform the piece on the night with a string quartet and supporting musicians.
Dr. Ciarán O’Keeffe, a leading authority in psychology and parapsychology from Liverpool Hope University also known for his media appearances on Living TV’s ‘Most Haunted’, has worked closely with the artists to underpin a strategy combining modern scientific and pseudoscientific techniques to consume and physically affect the audience to create a deliberately highly charged situation.
An installation of Silent Sound will then be presented as part of the inaugural programme at the major new contemporary art space, Greenland Street. An ambisonic audio recording of the live performance will be incorporated into a large-scale immersive installation specifically created by the artists to continue the event’s exploration of the mind’s potential receptiveness to suggestion.
More Details via AFoundation: http://www.afoundation.com/greenlandstreet/details.php?id=11
Forsyth and Pollard’s website: www.iainandjane.com
Spiritualized Website: www.spiritualized.com