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Exhibition Research: Sketches for the Future

Sung Tieu

Song Notes For Factories, 2021

by Fabienne Chiang

Sketching a factory with soundbites

In Song Notes For Factories, Tieu sketches a factory from the ground up using soundbites gathered during field visits. The sounds have been cleaned-up, manipulated, and distorted before being arranged into a soundscape that mimics movement around an imaginary factory space. As linear time progresses, the clinking and clanking undergoes changes in rhythm, volume, and intensity, resulting in a symphony orchestrated by the sounds of automated production.

Like An Architect, The Artist Constructs a Space Around Us

Song Notes For Factories was inspired by Tieu’s ongoing research into North Vietnamese migrant factory workers in Eastern Germany. In an agreement signed in 1980, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam agreed to send thousands of contract workers to the German Democratic Republic, where they worked in state-owned factories. Through a number of different exhibitions, Tieu has explored the state control and bureaucracy involved in the recruitment agreement, as well as the physical and psychological labor and living conditions endured by the workers.

And while one might imagine they could recognize the clattering of chains and rolling of conveyor belts in Song Notes For Factories, the sounds themselves remain largely ambiguous, having been severed from their original locations. This lack of visual and physical context emphasizes the invisibility of such labor and at the same time leaves interpretation and association largely open to the listener, activating a unique medley of associations, assumptions, and memories for reflection. In so doing, Tieu’s work seems to ferry us beyond the contemplative walls of the museum and into a place in which monotonous repetition and automation reign. Like an architect, the artist constructs a space around us, using sound as her only building blocks.

However, there is a suggestion of movement in the work too, both physically and emotionally. With the changes in volume and intensity, and the alternation between foreground and background in the composition, Tieu evokes movement through this imaginary space. As the narrative in the soundscape progresses through the rhythmic, at times almost melodically layered sounds, the sound waves reverberate through our bodies and psyche. The affective resonance of sound, and how we as individuals respond to it, are of interest to Tieu, whose practice explores the psychology of sound. How is sound related to space and memory? How does it influence our imagination, our emotions, and our physical selves?

More Sketches for the Future

This still from IOU 4 USA depicts a square charcoal drawing held up by two hands. The drawing is of a frame from The Simpsons and shows an IOU note in Homer’s hands. The note reads: “DEAR USA I.O.U. LESS KANDERS SIGNED USA”.
January 12, 2022/by Nikolai

Christine Sun Kim, IOU 4 USA, 2021

by Fabienne Chiang
A square, pale yellow sheet of paper rests on a white surface. A hand appears left of the sheet, as though about to turn it over. The light brown text at the top of the sheet reads: “#2 Learn a poem by heart. Go to a place where you can look through a window and recite it to yourself at the beginning and end of your workday. Repeat for at least 5 days.”
January 5, 2022/by Nikolai

Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen, 12 interventions for the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

by Danica Pinteric
Inside an empty, patinaed building, two performers are shown on the floor. The performer lies on their back, and the performer on the right is sitting in an upright position, cradling the other performer in their arms.
December 9, 2021/by Nikolai

Michele Rizzo, Rest, 2021

by Danica Pinteric
The artists hand appears holding a blue, slightly transparent audio cassette tape. On the top of the tape on a white label, the work title, “WHAT WE PUT IN THE SKAFTHINI (MIXAPENAYANA)” appears written in all-caps in black marker.
December 2, 2021/by Nikolai

Simnikiwe Buhlungu, What We Put in the Skafthini (Mixtapenyana), 2021

by Danica Pinteric
The police officer examines the inside of her left middle finger. She is wearing a yellow hat with a silver police badge and a turquoise dress. Her fingernails are painted red. Her made-up face is partially covered by another hand, which is out of focus.
November 15, 2021/by Nikolai

Ghita Skali, The Invaders, 2021

by Fabienne Chiang
Sung Tieu, Song Notes For Factories, 2021 From Fiction to Knowledge
November 9, 2021/by Nikolai

Sung Tieu, Song Notes For Factories, 2021

by Fabienne Chiang

Now at the Stedelijk

MODERN — Van Gogh, Rietveld, Léger and others is on view from 18 May until 24 September 2023.MODERN — Van Gogh, Rietveld, Léger and others is on view from 18 May until 24 September 2023.

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Collector Culture of the Russian Avant-GardeCollector Culture of the Russian Avant-GardeThe police officer examines the inside of her left middle finger. She is wearing a yellow hat with a silver police badge and a turquoise dress. Her fingernails are painted red. Her made-up face is partially covered by another hand, which is out of focus.Ghita Skali, The Invaders, 2021
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