The title UNDERPRESSURE refers to the process of pressure equalisation, in which the same pressure is created in two or more separate spaces filled with the same medium. With the site-specific installation Esther Mathis and Riikka Tauriainen create a room, which is able to reverse or dissolve the perceived physical attributes - pressure from above, resistance from below. The installation is reinforced by Kay Zhang’s soundscape, conceived for the exhibition.

This exhibition piece subtly breaks up architectural dimensions. Wavy lights are drawn on the walls - reminiscent of a sea floating above our heads.  Delicate plants grow from the ceiling and reinforce the twisted feeling of the room. Traces from the past are made visible and dialogues are conducted with associations of historical narratives, enabling new perspectives on time, materials, physical contexts, natural and artificial spaces.

This exhibition was hosted and in collaboration with the site specific OXYD in Winterthur, Switzerland, also formally known as the Kornhaus.

UNDERPRESSURE

Konzert at the Binz39, Zurich Art Weekend 2021
"Luminaire" Exhibition by Esther Mathis 

videos & editing by Kay Zhang & Esther Matthis 
recording & documentation by Riikka Tauriainen 

2021

Luminaire

**recommended to listen on headphones**

"Beneath our identity marked by history, traditions and power relations, lies a story of a stronger and more powerful union, which is the union by means of an irrefutable web of water, whose strongest thread is a river."
Text & Voices by Riikka Tauriainen, Paloma Ayala and Anne-Laure Franchette 

This sound composition is inspired by the self reflection since the world pandemic, as a way to be aware of the elements that have surrounded our environment, for example, spending time outdoors in nature, hiking in the alps, forest lands and river areas. This work is an important piece to actively integrate into the culture sphere after severe setbacks due to the circumstances. We see this as an important opportunity now to revitalize and nourish what has been reflected upon this time and showcase this composition. 
Both Kay Zhang and Melo Chua share a dynamic approach in how to configure a space and pose questions of how the nature of human-machine relations is in fact a reflection of how we relate with ourselves and our environment. Therefore, sound technology represents a call to reflect on the state of empathy and understanding within and among ourselves. The aesthetics of how to bring forward future-fictions with undertones of listening, pulling audiences into an intimate world of sound and ecology.

River Oracle_Industrial landscape

**recommended to listen on headphones**

"The sound of the current that carries thousands of liters of water per second is “more like the movement of a snake, which we feel rather than hear.“ Or rather, to which we listen with both our body and our imagination."
Text & Voices by Riikka Tauriainen, Paloma Ayala & Anne-Laure Franchette 
 
This sound composition is inspired by the self reflection since the world pandemic, as a way to be aware of the elements that have surrounded our environment, for example, spending time outdoors in nature, hiking in the alps, forest lands and river areas. This work is an important piece to actively integrate into the culture sphere after severe setbacks due to the circumstances. We see this as an important opportunity now to revitalize and nourish what has been reflected upon this time and showcase this composition. 
Both Kay Zhang and Melo Chua share a dynamic approach in how to configure a space and pose questions of how the nature of human-machine relations is in fact a reflection of how we relate with ourselves and our environment. Therefore, sound technology represents a call to reflect on the state of empathy and understanding within and among ourselves. The aesthetics of how to bring forward future-fictions with undertones of listening, pulling audiences into an intimate world of sound and ecology.

River Oracle_Water bodies

**recommended to listen on headphones**

"If we listen closely to them, we can hear what it means to be part of a flow, to receive the immediate generosity of the river and the aftermath of what happens on the slopes of mountains that are transmitted more directly to them. For despite the fluid state of the water, the relationships that the river current forges- remain solidly bound."
Text written by Riikka Tauriainen, Paloma Ayala & Anne-Laure Franchette 

This sound composition is inspired by the self reflection since the world pandemic, as a way to be aware of the elements that have surrounded our environment, for example, spending time outdoors in nature, hiking in the alps, forest lands and river areas. This work is an important piece to actively integrate into the culture sphere after severe setbacks due to the circumstances. We see this as an important opportunity now to revitalize and nourish what has been reflected upon this time and showcase this composition. 
Both Kay Zhang and Melo Chua share a dynamic approach in how to configure a space and pose questions of how the nature of human-machine relations is in fact a reflection of how we relate with ourselves and our environment. Therefore, sound technology represents a call to reflect on the state of empathy and understanding within and among ourselves. The aesthetics of how to bring forward future-fictions with undertones of listening, pulling audiences into an intimate world of sound and ecology.

River Oracle_Collectivity

Ecotone Encounters opens up a space to pause, to reflect, multi-layered and full of poetry, where visitors are immersed in a world of imagination and new perspectives, allowing boundaries to become more permeable. Set in a post-humanist world of ideas, Ecotone Encounters evokes utopias: What would our world look like if we, as fluid bodies, as Bodies of Water, were aware of our connection with all living things - and thus our responsibility? If we were socialised as Bodies of Water with our environment in this hydro-logic?

Ecotones Encounters is a work by Riikka Tauriainen as part of the Zeppelin Museum, Artist in Residence of the ZF Kunststiftung in Friedrichshafen, Germany. 

Composition, sound design, recording and mastering by Kay Zhang

Ecotone Encounters

In-betweenness is also defined by its ‘essential connectedness’... histories of borrowing, displacement, transformation and continual re-inscription.
video by Riikka Tauriainen  images and videos by Kay Zhang technical support by Nuriia Khasenova & Antoine Chessex
productions by ARKA

Inbetweenness

Tentacular Thinking - sonic workshop
Riikka Tauriainen & Kay Zhang 
ETH Seminar
Riikka Tauriainen brainstorm, sound design and text by Kay Zhang, music and sounds by ETH students B8 - Group 6 Lisa, Alicia, Anaïs B7 - Group 2 Anna Hahn-Woernle, Camilla Köppel, Jasmine Appelt, Moira Martínez-Avial, B8 - Group 3 Alejandra Richard, Clemens Krüger, Julian Hodel, Leandro Dietz, Laura von Salis, B7 - Group 4 Matteo Chiabotti, Jonas Pfeffer, Reto Fässler, B8 - Group 2 Fabia Egloff, Eva Tschopp, Lukas Burger, Pascal Bertschi.

Tentacular Thinking

Bodiness is a one on one research installation about how humans cultivate through the body.
Through this two day installation, three artists featured  "in progress" works and interpretations of how we cultivate through the body using techniques of digital/costume, sculpture and sonic-massage format to bring forward a body-ness experience.
The intricacies of entanglement through our senses, objects and psychological states can create embodied experiences which sparks an intrinsic world of imagination, emotions and physical complexities.

Works by Maria Miguel, Kay Zhang and Gabriela Jean-Mairet
Sounds by Kay Zhang and Maximilian Whitcher

Kay Zhang

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