"Somewhere I Have Never Travelled" for String Orchestra

Safety Land

Portrait

A recording of Rev. Sungsim Lee, Ven. Jungkil Lee, Yejung Yun, and Rev. Insik Kim of Won Bul-Kyo as part of "Prayer (Chicago)" curated by Matthew Witkowsky for The Art Institute of Chicago, with research and production assistance by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield.

Prayer is a multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer from all the religions in a specific city, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker plays a separate, looped and unsynchronised, audio track, resulting in an ever-changing sound environment. Members of the audiences may choose to step on to the carpet, where they can wander freely through the installation, thus composing their own symphony of voices from all the speakers at once. Alternatively, they may kneel down to listen to particular prayers broadcast from an individual speaker. This more intimate way of listening introduces a highly symbolic visual dimension to the work.
The project is created in situ every time, and the prayers are collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Prayer is an on-going project that has, to date, been presented in South Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb and the recorded participant’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

Won Bul - Kyo_Prayer (Chicago)

A recording of members of Saint James Episcopal Cathedral choir as part of "Prayer (Chicago)" curated by Matthew Witkowsky for The Art Institute of Chicago, with research and production assistance by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield.

Prayer is a multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer from all the religions in a specific city, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker plays a separate, looped and unsynchronised, audio track, resulting in an ever-changing sound environment. Members of the audiences may choose to step on to the carpet, where they can wander freely through the installation, thus composing their own symphony of voices from all the speakers at once. Alternatively, they may kneel down to listen to particular prayers broadcast from an individual speaker. This more intimate way of listening introduces a highly symbolic visual dimension to the work.
The project is created in situ every time, and the prayers are collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Prayer is an on-going project that has, to date, been presented in South Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb and the recorded participant’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

Saint James Episcopal Cathedral choir_Prayer (Chicago)

A recording of Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr. of the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation as part of "Prayer (Chicago)" curated by Matthew Witkowsky for The Art Institute of Chicago, with research and production assistance by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield.

Prayer is a multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer from all the religions in a specific city, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker plays a separate, looped and unsynchronised, audio track, resulting in an ever-changing sound environment. Members of the audiences may choose to step on to the carpet, where they can wander freely through the installation, thus composing their own symphony of voices from all the speakers at once. Alternatively, they may kneel down to listen to particular prayers broadcast from an individual speaker. This more intimate way of listening introduces a highly symbolic visual dimension to the work.
The project is created in situ every time, and the prayers are collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Prayer is an on-going project that has, to date, been presented in South Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb and the recorded participant’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

Rabbi Funnye, Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation_Prayer (Chicago)

A recording of Sri Viswanathan Kalyanasundaram, Sri Subhadracharyulu Srinivasula, Sri Hanumanth Prasad Paramkusam, and Sri Begur Nagendra Rao of the Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji Temple as part of "Prayer (Chicago)" curated by Matthew Witkowsky for The Art Institute of Chicago, with research and production assistance by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield.

Prayer is a multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer from all the religions in a specific city, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker plays a separate, looped and unsynchronised, audio track, resulting in an ever-changing sound environment. Members of the audiences may choose to step on to the carpet, where they can wander freely through the installation, thus composing their own symphony of voices from all the speakers at once. Alternatively, they may kneel down to listen to particular prayers broadcast from an individual speaker. This more intimate way of listening introduces a highly symbolic visual dimension to the work.
The project is created in situ every time, and the prayers are collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Prayer is an on-going project that has, to date, been presented in South Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb and the recorded participant’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji_Prayer (Chicago)

A recording of members of the Eckankar, Illinois Satsang Society performing the Hu chant as part of "Prayer (Chicago)" curated by Matthew Witkowsky for The Art Institute of Chicago, with research and production assistance by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield.

Prayer is a multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer from all the religions in a specific city, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker plays a separate, looped and unsynchronised, audio track, resulting in an ever-changing sound environment. Members of the audiences may choose to step on to the carpet, where they can wander freely through the installation, thus composing their own symphony of voices from all the speakers at once. Alternatively, they may kneel down to listen to particular prayers broadcast from an individual speaker. This more intimate way of listening introduces a highly symbolic visual dimension to the work.
The project is created in situ every time, and the prayers are collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Prayer is an on-going project that has, to date, been presented in South Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb and the recorded participant’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

Eckankar, Illinois Satsang Society_Prayer (Chicago)

A while ago, I wrote an aria based on Shakespeare text - for soprano and chamber orchestra. I used extracts from Cleopatra's death scene and set it to music. There is a moment in the aria she imagines she hears Antony call from the afterlife and in this moment, I developed a love theme for them. 

Cleopatra is about to take her own life and longs to join her husband. 

I decided to revisit this theme and arrange it for string orchestra. This recording was done in the James L Dolan Studio at NYU.

Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra - A Love Theme

A recorded voice addresses questions to a silver Denarius minted in Rome in 70AD. In this ongoing series, the artist literally poses a series of questions to select objects/spaces as if they were able to respond. The installation takes the form of the display of the particular object, e.g. an antique Roman coin, and an audio speaker installed above where the audience would ideally be situated in relation to the object on exhibition. The audio speaker broadcasts the series of questions addressed to the object. Time is given between each question for the object to reply, and for the audience to consider their own responses to the questions and the situation. 

The artwork proposes that each object is more than the sum of its parts and what it represents, and that each object would have had its own, unique set of experiences. The form of address seeks to honour the object and create a space for it to speak in its own way. The questions - and the audience’s projected answers - furthermore serve to reconsider and complicate the object, transforming the standard conditions of display, and opening up new interpretations and parallel histories and possibilities.

The artwork began in 2016 and has been realised in various locations with various objects. For this edition, the artist used PayPal to purchase a two millennia old silver Denarius coin from eBay. It is plausible to think that this coin, minted in the year 70AD, would have been used for all manner of transactions; from buying bread to being used as a bribe, and being part of the empire’s taxation and usury systems. 

The questions were written specifically for this coin, translated into French by Julie Azémar, Bénédicte Delay, Boris Atrux-Tallau, and Line Ajan, and recorded bilingually by Sylvaine Strike. Recording was done by Kyle Leith and Dave Langemann. Thanks to Mia Thom for studio and production assistance; thanks to Samah Slim for installation assistance. Thanks to Lina Kinning. 

Note: The audio in this clip is an edited extract of a longer piece. The durations of "silence" between each question are longer in the installation.

Exhibited as part of “Choose The Universe,” James Webb’s second solo show at Galerie Imane Farès, 5 September - 26 October 2019.

Voice: Sylvaine Strike
Photo by Tadzio

All rights reserved. The copyright for this audio piece is reserved.
Any replication or use of content such as images, audio and texts is not permitted without James Webb’s written consent.

Gallery representation: 
Galerie Imane Farès, Paris www.imanefares.com 
blank projects, Cape Town www.blankprojects.com

A series of personal questions addressed to a Roman coin (2019)_English version

This piece establishes an ambiguous relationship to the acousmatic voice; a voice that is present, but bodiless. The case, which would typically be stowed away, behaves as its lost instruments surrogate; has its voice returned or has latent sound been sonified upon its opening? The piece was conceived to engage instrument and case in a duet; affecting each other acoustically, in turns.

The title Idée Fixe alludes to a psychoacoustic reading, having meanings in both music and psychology as an idea, thought or motif that recurs. Musically it keys one into the style of the piece, which espouses a Romantic urgency, open to a cadenza like, soloistic interpretation, while too being hybrid through exploration of extended technique and moments of interaction with the case itself. 

Conceptually it reveals a sense of fragmentation or displacement and a longing - a desire to land, or return home. Hovering too is an uncanny sense of the musician’s body.

Experientially the "performance" forms tension with well versed concert etiquette and raises questions around the act of shared listening, with the anxieties and complexities that surface. These considerations are heightened within the context pandemic.
And a question, does one clap for an inanimate performer?

Composition by Mikhaila Smith
Performed by Mariechen Meyer

Idée Fix (for Bowed Electrons Festival & Symposium 2020)

Interdisciplinary artist based in Cape Town.

Idée Fix (for Bowed Electrons Festival & Symposium 2020)

Mia Thom

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