Moment

Dreyer, Elfriede

Moment

Dreyer, Elfriede

URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10500/32067

Date: 2024

Type: Mixed media

Abstract:

The Moment project (2024) consists of ten new artworks, each paired with a unique sound composition, culminating in two solo exhibitions: one at Tina Skukan Gallery in Pretoria and another at White River Gallery in Mpumalanga. As an invited artist at both venues, I developed these works specifically for this exhibition, building on my exploration of sound initiated with The Piano at the beginning of 2024. Thematically, Moment investigates the processes of transmuting sound into word, image into sound, and word into image. I collaborated with Seoul-based experimental visual and sound artist Johan van Huyssteen, composing sounds on my piano, which he then post-produced. In The Piano, my piano—both as an object and an instrument that survived the 2017 Knysna Great Fire—became a vehicle for exploring themes of loss and recollection. Selected works from that series were included in Moment, which further extends these inquiries by specifically examining the interplay between image, word, and sound. Each work is accompanied by a sound composition, accessible via QR codes displayed at the exhibitions.The visual language of Moment incorporates imagery of sound waves, comic-book conventions such as dialogue balloons, and mountain landscapes. A technique of layered polyphony—applied across physical and digital media—evokes a sense of consciousness extending across physical, mental, and virtual realms. The project also includes an online exhibition catalogue, three artist walkabouts, and international collaboration. The works remain permanently available for viewing at www.elfriededreyer.com/2024-moment.

Description:

The newly produced works for this exhibition were inspired by my experimentation in 2024 with intermediality in my solo exhibition, The Piano. In Moment, I collaborated with Seoul-based experimental visual and sound artist Johan van Huyssteen to compose sounds on and within my piano, while he handled post-production after the paintings were completed. The Piano explored my instrument—my only possession to survive the 2017 Knysna Great Fire—not only as a sound-producing object but also in terms of themes of loss and remembrance.Twelve works from that series were selected to create sound compositions for and be included in the Moment exhibitions, to further extend the inquiry into the interplay between image, word, and sound. Initially, these works were presented without sound, but for Moment, they acquired a sonic dimension. Imagery of fire, sound waves, comic-book conventions such as dialogue balloons (Tonk, Moment, and Die trane die rol oor jou Bokkie), and mountain symbolism (Speak to the Mountain) are central to this body of work. A technique of layered polyphony—employed across physical and digital media in both image and sound—suggests consciousness extending across physical, mental, and virtual realms. Conceptually, this dialogical polyphony aligns with Heidegger’s ([1927] 1962) notion of Dasein, which describes the human condition as fundamentally situated within a world of relationality. Dasein is always Being-with-Others, an ontology of interconnectedness. Sound, with its vibrational materiality, embodies this interconnectivity, reinforcing the fluid boundaries between self and environment. Heidegger’s concept of Geworfenheit (being ‘thrown’ into existence) extends to all living beings, encompassing their relationship to temporality and death. In Moment, a pivotal work in the series, life is framed as an ephemeral instance—captured within a transparent dialogue balloon—expressing the existential condition of Being-in-Time. The new Moment works explore the connections of image and word to sound, and each work is accompanied by its own sound composition. The sounds are accessible via QR codes, shown during the exhibitions for the public to access. Some sounds simulate child-like simple consonant melodies and others are more dissonant and emotional, attempting to capture a particular existential moment. An existential scream materialises through image and sound in Ebony, narrating the trauma of the ebony tree’s felling—its wood repurposed into the black keys of the piano. In the moment of its ‘death,’ the inner heart of the wood reveals a vivid red, gradually darkening to black as it withers. Engaging in an intermedial idiom cultivates a dynamic interplay where meaning emerges through the interaction of media rather than within isolated forms. As Rajewsky (2005) posits, intermediality is a transformative process in which media actively reshape one another. The intermedial fusion of sound, word, and image in the exploration of fire and loss employs sensory layering, dissolving boundaries in a polyphonic dialogue. In works such as Fermata (‘Pause’), Saving Grace of Sound, and Boom! Ting!, physical burning was used as both process and metaphor, enacting a symbolic fusion of media. This intermedial approach operates through oscillation between forms, echoing the flickering nature of fire—a force that simultaneously consumes and creates. The inherent loss within fire’s destructive capacity extends beyond the visual into the sonic, contributing to what Voegelin (2010) describes as the “productive body of sound”, where sound is not merely an auditory phenomenon but a material force that shapes perception and meaning. In the Moment series intermediality becomes a methodology for articulating the existential condition of connectedness. These works exemplify the idea of ‘intermedia’, a space where traditional distinctions between artistic disciplines collapse, fostering new modalities of expression. Sources quoted Heidegger, M. [1927] 1962. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward. Available: https://altair.pw/pub/lib/Martin%20Heidegger%20-%20Being%20and%20Time%20(translated%20by%20Macquarrie%20&%20Robinson).pdf. Accessed 3 September 2024. Rajewsky, IO. 2005. Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality. Intermédialités 6: 43–64. Available: https://doi.org/10.7202/1005505ar. Accessed 3 September 2024. Voegelin, S. 2010. Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

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Moment

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