Alison Bigg - Just Listen

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Alison Bigg, Aurical, fragment of the exhibition installation at the Victoria Arts Council, July 2023 (photo by Andrew Niemann)

Nowadays, “I’m crazy busy” is the default response to a simple “How are you?” –and it’s often not an exaggeration. Many of us are overwhelmed by a constant stream of emails, texts and flashing news alerts. How often do we truly stop and take time to listen? 

Victoria-based artist Alison Bigg learned how to listen the hard way. In 2017, she began experiencing unusual hearing changes and was diagnosed with otosclerosis, an incurable hardening of the bones in the inner ear. Now fully deaf in one ear and partially in the other, she has no choice but to face people and pay attention.

“Multi-tasking doesn’t happen when someone is speaking to me,” she says. “It’s taught me how to listen rather than just hear.”

Realizing how much she had been missing with perfect hearing, Bigg began to create funny, quirky, yet reflective artworks that invite viewers to listen deeply and filter out what truly matters.

Her eye-catching sculptures, a sound muffling chamber installation and an artist book are on view at Edmonton’s Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in a show entitled Auricals (the artist’s word), running until October 5. 

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Alison Bigg, “Aurical #5,” 2022, glass, metal and 3D printing, 27" x 12" x 6" (photo courtesy of Harcourt House)

But her serious message dawns later. Entering the show is like stepping into a futuristic playroom. The vibrant, playful atmosphere draws you in with its eccentric sculptures, crafted from thrift store finds and fused with remarkable precision by 3D-printed elements.

These works, also entitled Auricals, beg to be handled. Though meant for viewing only, the oddly shaped phone-like receivers, peculiar-looking fans, glittering lampshades, upside-down vases and fluorescent bouncy balls can come apart like oversized Lego blocks.  

Bigg’s sculptures draw inspiration from historic attempts to create functioning hearing aids — often bizarre, failed or only moderately successful devices. These range from hollowed-out horns and acoustic fans to the 18th-century collapsible hearing trumpet, designed to be hidden in the user’s hair. However, her pieces are not practical, but poetic inventions.

For example, Aurical #5 features a pair of claw-like, misshapen seven-tine serving forks that seem to grasp invisible forces. “Personally, I would use it to grab and focus only the information I want to hear,” she explains, encouraging viewers to dream up other uses.

The creative play this work induces is tempered by subtle danger signals. Fluorescent-orange accents–reminiscent of code orange hospital alerts or the safety vests worn by road crews–caution viewers to slow down and pay attention. Each orange focal point punctuating the sculptures serves as a small but persistent warning.

Yet the orange glow that cuts through cracks in the walls of the Aurical Chamber installation is more unsettling. Like a candle flame used in meditation, it draws the viewer in, prompting a moment of deeper contemplation. 

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Alison Bigg, “Aurical #9,” 2023, assemblage sculpture, 24" x 12" x 7" (photo by Alison Bigg)

The sense of danger intensifies as viewers approach the #lostfoundsound hand-printed artist book, encased in a 3D-printed, do-it-yourself-kit-inspired cover. This work glows with the intensity of road construction signage. Subtly embossed phrases such as “Gossip Machine” and “To Filter Misunderstandings” emerge beneath historic illustrations of hearing aids. But most striking is the bold, all-caps, spray-painted text, with the starkest command being: “SILENCE.”

That’s a tall order nowadays. Smartphones and tablets beckon with the allure of endless diversion and dramatic news clips, making silence and deep listening feel like a lost art form.

Yet, this show’s thoughtful message might resonate with viewers. Perhaps some of us will exit Bigg’s show with a renewed motivation to reach out to a friend or neighbour and truly listen. ■

Alison Bigg, Auricals, is on view now through Oct. 5 at Harcourt House Artist-Run Centre in Edmonton

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