Transference
Blown and sculpted glass, motors, wood, leather, RC components, hardware, electronic controls
Installation dimensions vary
2009-2013
In collaboration with Ethan Rose
Originally commissioned by and exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon, November 19, 2009 – January 9, 2010. Transference has also been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, the Houston center for Contemporary Craft, and a selection of 10 sounding units was purchased by the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft for its permanent collection in 2014.
Through contrasts of transparency and obscurity, antiquated and modern technology, and performance and recording, Transference plays with the audience. - Jane Carlen, Portland Mercury
"Transference is a collaborative installation that explores the aural potential of glass – specifically of the glass vessel. Andy Paiko and sound artist/composer Ethan Rose share a mutual interest in recontextualizing antiquated objects and technologies. Inspired by the buried histories of the glass harp and glass armonica, Transference employs the strangely ethereal sounds of the “singing” vessel with the aural and physical sensations of seemingly random spinning bowls. Dating back to the Renaissance, the glass armonica is typically played by rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a series of glasses or goblets of various sizes set across a table. Immensely popular from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries, many composers, including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Tchiakovsky composed works for the glass armonica, later transcribed for more traditional instruments. In this exhibition, the artists remove the performer, relying on electronic composition to trigger movement, vibration and sound in bowls mounted on walls and atop pedestals. This alternative version of a nearly forgotten instrument calls attention to history while simultaneously reminding viewers of the unexpected potential of the deceivingly simple glass bowl." -Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR.
It is the ephemeral experience of Transference that departs from the expected materiality of craft.
- Megan Driscoll, PORT
This exhibition combines the strangely ethereal aural qualities of glass with the visual and physical sensations of dozens of spinning glass bowls, wired to rotate in an intentionally indeterminate sequence. Paiko and Rose worked together to select and place bowls in response to each vessel's natural aural qualities; in essence, making the glass the third collaborator in the project.
Wonder and seduction are also at the heart of "Transference" - Bob Hicks, Oregonian