Feeling like you could blow at any moment?
Perhaps you need to check out an unusual sensory experience at the Art Gallery of Ontario created by one of Iceland’s leading artists and musicians.
Jón Þór "Jónsi” Birgisson invites visitors to step inside a volcano in Hrafntinna (Obsidian).
The 2021 work immerses visitors in a dark ring of sound, scent, lighting and reverberation, for a dramatic imagining of the 2021 eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano.
Jónsi, lead singer of the band Sigur Rós for more than two decades, collaborated with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers to create the work.
“Trapped in Los Angeles by the pandemic, unable to witness the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, Jónsi was inspired to find a way to overcome geographical limitations,” says the exhibition's curator, Xiaoyu Weng.
Jonsi says a ring of 195 speakers helps transport visitors through sound, that includes his voice, flowing lava and crumbling rocks.
“Despite their invisibility, scent and music have so much capacity to make us feel,” says Jónsi. “They engage us physically, trigger us physically, while simultaneously allowing our minds to wander – through memory, across landscapes – which is really therapeutic. Throughout the pandemic all we did was look. We looked at screens, looked at what we’re missing. I believe scent and sound are an alternate, more exciting way of seeing.”
The exhibition is expected to run through 2023.
Source: Art Gallery of Ontario