Label Text:
In 1798, two elephants named Hans and Parkie were brought to Paris as spoils of the French Revolutionary Wars (1782-1800). That same year, a concert was organized for the elephants to investigate whether music played by humans could elicit a response from animals. In Apotomē, Allora & Calzadilla use this story to explore how modern musicians engage with ancient artifacts through sound.
In the video, vocalist Tim Storms walks through the storerooms of Paris’s Natural History Museum while singing to taxidermy animals in a low, rumbling timbre. Storms holds the record for the lowest note produced by a human, capable of reaching notes as low as G-7 (0.189 Hz), or seven octaves below the lowest G note on a piano. These subsonic frequencies are so low that without amplification, only animals as large as elephants can hear them.
As Storms walks by the animal specimens, he sings the same songs from the 1798 concert to preserved remains of Hans and Parkie, which are held in the Museum’s storeroom. Allora & Calzadilla use these connections to explore how history, captivity, and biomusicology influence the relationships between humans and animals. - Sherry Shang, MA candidate in Art History
Tags:
animals; bones; ceremonies; communication; conceptual art; elephants; interiors; lion; monkeys; music; natural history; performances; performing artists; rituals; skeletons; skulls; teeth; time-based works; video art Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=UM+2024.1 |
