Play on
I’ve always wanted to be Herbert von Karajan.
I can’t, but with the Sharevari installation I can at least pretend to be. Waving my hands at the Ninth Symphony playing in my head, this isn’t a full 70-person orchestra but a semi circle of brass tubes and crystal bowls.
Created by sound artist and electronic musicians Yuri Suzuki, Sharevari is a collaboration between the artist and crystal house Swarovski. Described as an acoustic and interactive installation, Sharevari is currently at Art Central Hong Kong 2017 (after premiering at Art Miami/Basel last year), it is the first piece that greets you as you enter the art fair’s cavernous halls. Referencing the tradition of charivari folk protests, where people made sounds from household equipment, it invites attendees – including toddlers – to participate in creating art music.
In Sharevari, each of the 16 brass ‘towers’ (or ‘notes’) is capped with a Swarovski-made crystal of specific diameter, ranging from 95-250mm and each corresponding to musical tones from c1 to d3. Motion sensors embedded in each of the notes sense hand movement, triggering a brass hammer to hit the acid-polished crystal, creating pure, crystalline sound from vibrations. Crafted in collaboration with the Swarovski engineering team in Austria, the entire project took half a year from conception to completion. Left to its own devices, Sharevari plays original compositions by Suzuki; stepping into the centre overrides the pre-programming, allowing a person to assume control of the instrument. Theoretically, I could command the ‘notes’ to perform the Ride of the Valkyries, or something simpler like a nursery rhyme. But even just flailing arms around creates a cascade of sounds that does please the ears.
“I was named one of the winners of the 2016 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award at Design Miami/Basel,” says the Japan-born, London-based Suzuki, “and as part of my resulting commission, I was challenged to work with crystal beyond pure product design, moving into conceptual or technologically challenging approaches. Swarovski is really beautiful visually, but since my background is more about sound design, I wanted to do an interactive sound art piece. Crystal-made instruments actually existed as far back as the 17th century, but people believed it drove people insane, so they stopped. That’s a shame. I want to bring that back.”
So, as they say, let the music play. The notes might be slightly discordant, but standing in the middle of Sharevari, I am Mr. von Karajan, if only for a moment.
Swarovski at Art Central Hong Kong 2017
