Sound in Sculpture

Thursday, April 6, 2023

200 East Dean Keeton St

6:00 PM

Now in its eighth year, Sound in Sculpture showcases original music composed and performed by UT students in response to works from the Landmarks public art collection. This year, Mark di Suvero’s Clock Knot and Sarah Oppenheimer’s C-010106, one of the newest additions to Landmarks’ collection, serve as inspiration for the composers.

Mark di Suvero

American, born in China 1933

CLOCK KNOT , 2007

Painted Steel

Purchase, Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013

Photo by Paul Bardagjy

Mark di Suvero is one of the most important sculptors of his generation. As a student, he was deeply engaged in studying and writing poetry and was attuned to music, from Bach to jazz. Once he began to pursue sculpture, di Suvero found an outlet for his explorations in other fields that intrigued him, including architecture, mathematics, science, engineering, poetry, and language.

The heroic sculpture Clock Knot exemplifies the power of art to transform public locations. Walking around the work produces constantly changing views, and moving under it offers another experience of the sculpture and its space. The crossed I-beams and circular “knotted” center of Clock Knot suggest a giant clock face with a horizontal “hand” extending to the left. As a viewer moves around the sculpture, their understanding of its structure and form changes. Is it a clock or not/knot?

Clock Knot is a work of poetry and power. As visitors pass through its space looking at the sky and feeling the exuberant lift of the sculpture, their imaginations will play with its visual and verbal suggestions.

Works of Art

Sarah Oppenheimer

American, born 1972

C-010106 , 2022

Aluminum, steel, glass, and architecture Commission, Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin, 2022 by Richard Barnes

Sarah Oppenheimer creates works of art that alter the built environment and shift our frame of spatial reference. Pushing the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, Oppenheimer questions the limits of both mediums, upending our experience of inside and out, and inverting our sense of what is near and far. By reorienting the spaces we inhabit, the artist sets out to reconfigure the way we see and are seen.

Oppenheimer operates within the disciplines of mechanical, structural, and behavioral engineering and the artist’s relationship to these fields makes C-010106 ideally situated between two buildings at the Cockrell School of Engineering.

The artwork’s physical siting is important to its interpretation as well. A bridge serves as a connector between spaces and people by making travel from one building to another more efficient and direct. By placing glass forms on the north/south and east/west axes of this bridge, Oppenheimer creates a “switch” that interrupts the normal flow of traffic and habitual ways of movement. This alteration invites us to embrace observation and encourages unexpected social interactions. As a result, C-010106 introduces new relationships between people and heightens awareness of the shifting light, sound, and seasons that surround us.

Brick By Brick

by Josíah Garza

Ruben Acuña Gonzalez, Percussion

Jaime Garcia, Percussion

Gabriel Vaca, Percussion

Josíah Garza, Percussion

Sophie Mathieu, Electronics

About the Composer

Josíah Garza is a composer, percussionist, and recorder player hailing from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. He currently attends The University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music where he studies composition with Dr. Alyssa Weinberg. Josíah has previously studied with Dr. Michael Mikulka, Dr. Russell Podgorsek, Dr. Yevgeniy Sharlat, and is currently an intern for the composer, Dr. Melissa Dunphy, at Mormolyke Press. Rooted in collaboration, Josíah seeks to foster a narrative in each of his works. He nestles meaning in idiomatic music in an attempt to broaden the standards of classical music.

Composer Remarks

Growing up on the border between Texas and Mexico has been a significant part of my cultural upbringing. Borders exist physically, internally, socially, and monetarily. While spending time under Clock Knot, I was impressed by the way it seemed to freeze time and encompass a multitude of industrial narratives. I chose to compose a piece that furthered the idea of time and heavy metals by including a wall comprised of crowbars, hooks, pipes, threads, ropes, and bricks. In presenting this to the audience, I hope that we may think of a time in which we approach difficult discussions and investigate how we go about being agents of change in our day-to-day lives. Brick by brick we can make a difference in our world to stop borders from being weapons disguised as shields. Brick by brick we can enact positive change to our society so long as we have the compassion and patience to do so.

NO’IS’TES

by Jinghong Zhang

Dance and Fixed Media

About the Composer

Jinghong Zhang is an innovator, multi-media electroacoustic music performer, and composer of Chinese origin. As a multi-instrument virtuoso and dancer who frequently expands creative expression through the use of technology, Jinghong is a dynamic and sensitive performer with the ability to evoke profound emotion. Jinghong’s collaborations encompass a wide range of live performance with interactive electronics, orchestra, and interdisciplinary presentations throughout the United States and overseas.

Composer Remarks

No’is’tes responds to Clock Knot’s multi-interpretive title and poses its own question: Is this work made of notes or noises? No’is’tes, in a sonic sense, can be heard as an acoustic instrumental ensemble which includes noise components intermingling with a tonal base.

The work also has another name, New Expansion. A solo viola accompanies and initiates the sounds of the ancient and the contemporary, the acoustic and the electronic, and the tone and the noise. The solo viola at the center of the arrangement, initiates the expansion of sonic imagination and intervention, just as Clock Knot does in a visual sense.

Intersection

by Rita Yung

Hunter Robertson, Clarinet

About the Composer

Rita Yung is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in music technology and digital media at the University of Toronto. She received her Master’s degree in composition at the University of Texas at Austin and her

Bachelor’s degree at Hong Kong Baptist University. She studied with Galison Lau, Christopher Coleman, Christopher J Keyes, Nina C. Young, Annie Gosfield, and Yevgeniy Sharlat.

As a composer, Yung works on both acoustic and electronic music. Recent compositions include Polaris for orchestra (2020); Silence for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin and percussion (2020); Innerlouge for bassoon and live electronics (2019); Life is but a dream for zheng and electronics (2016). Her works have been featured in concerts and conferences, such as International Computer Music Conference (2017 Shanghai, 2020 Chile), Electric La Tex (2020 Denton), Etching Festive (2019 France), International Alliance for Women in Music conference (2019 Boston), Feminist Theory and Music conference (Boston 2019), Seoul International Computer Music Festival (2017 Korea), and New Generation (2017, 2018 Hong Kong).

Composer Remarks

Intersection is based on the idea proposed by Sarah Oppenheimer’s C-010106 of altering the built environment and shifting our frame of spatial reference. Reframing the sound of the clarinet, Intersection presents different combinations of a set of classic clarinet pieces merged with some popular contemporary techniques. Instead of creating a fluid or beautiful combination between the two, Intersection aims to prompt classic and contemporary sparks.

Within The Flux

by Joe Jaxson

Connor O’Toole, Soprano Sax

Joel Ferst, Alto Sax

Marina Sakellakis, Tenor Sax

Inbo Shim, Baritone Sax

Luciano Medina, Percussion

About the Composer

Joe Jaxson is a composer whose music challenges the familiar and covers a range of styles and genres, from Contemporary Classical to Cinematic Screen Scoring. Recent premieres include Treeflowers (2023) performed by the Sandbox

Percussion Quartet, Persevering (2022) for Chamber Orchestra commissioned by the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra. Mountain Stars (2022) for solo cellist Sarah Kapps and The Light of Stars (2022) for Baritone voice and piano both premiered at the 2022 Wintergreen Music Festival.

Composer Remarks

Inspired by Sarah Oppenheimer’s C-010106, this composition aims to reconfigure social patterns within the flux of public place. The piece is built with apparatuses similar to those used in C-010106. Fairly improvisational, with few points of structural alignment, the work relies on the musicians’ close connection with one another to stay in sync and in time.