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Allora and CalzadillaCreative duo of artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla
Date of Birth: .
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Content:
- Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla: A Creative Duo
- Artistic Collaborations
- Artistic Approach and Mediums
- The Politics of Sound
- "Clamor"
- "Returning a Sound"
- "Wake Up"
- "Under Discussion"
- "Amphibious (Login-Logout)"
Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla: A Creative Duo
Early Life and EducationJennifer Allora (born 1974 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (born 1971 in Havana, Cuba) are a collaborative art duo. Allora received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Richmond, Virginia (1996) and her Master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003). Calzadilla studied at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, Puerto Rico (1996) and Bard College (2001).
Artistic Collaborations
Allora and Calzadilla have been collaborating since 1995. They live and work in Puerto Rico, a place where Caribbean culture intermingles with colonial history and the influence of the United States. Despite its tropical location and the beauty of the surrounding region, Puerto Rico is also home to heavy industry, and several of the smaller islands were used by the US for military testing over an extended period. This extraordinary and often contradictory landscape informs the themes that the artists explore in their work.
Artistic Approach and Mediums
Allora and Calzadilla approach visual art as a series of experiments designed to examine ideas such as authorship, nationality, borders, democracy, globalization, and consumerism. Their hybrid works often combine sculpture, photography, performance, sound, and video. Employing historical, cultural, and political metaphors, the artists engage the complex associations that surround an object and its meaning.
The Politics of Sound
Allora and Calzadilla have produced a series of works that critically analyze how power, militarism, and warfare are encoded through sound. These works explore the different ways that music has been deployed throughout history, as well as the creation of new forms of musical expression. The series includes pieces such as "Clamor" (2006), "Sediments Sentiments (Figures of Speech)" (2007), "Wake Up" (2006), and "Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on 'Ode to Joy' for a Prepared Piano" (2008).
#"Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on 'Ode to Joy' for a Prepared Piano"
In "Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on 'Ode to Joy' for a Prepared Piano" (2008), Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla utilize musical, sculptural, and performative elements. Pianists take turns performing a segment of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (1824) on a grand piano with the foot pedals reversed and their bodies inserted through a hole cut into the center of the instrument. The task is further complicated as the inverted position forces them to play the keyboard in reverse while the piano, mounted on wheels, rolls across the mostly empty gallery space. The audience involuntarily follows the pianist, who essentially leads them. The musicians' efforts are ultimately incomplete - a hole in the piano removes two full octaves, leaving portions of the melody missing. The void is replaced by the sound of the pianist's fingers striking the keys. As in earlier works, Allora and Calzadilla play with the boundaries between sound and sculpture, found and modified objects, and stasis and live action. Having been associated with the Nazi regime, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and now the official anthem of the European Union, the history of "Ode to Joy" provides the artists with a means to render visible the destructive potential embedded within the work.
"Clamor"
In "Clamor" (2006), the artists explore the relationship between sound, music, and war. A large sculptural chamber, resembling a bunker and incorporating chunks of rock, serves as the performance space for music associated with war and political conflict. For performances held during the exhibition opening and periodically throughout its duration, musicians conceal themselves within the work, competitively playing historical militaristic songs, creating a monstrous cacophony of martial music that falls somewhere between symphony and pandemonium. A 40-minute soundtrack was pre-recorded by the artists and also emanated from within Clamor during the exhibition. It features music from the Ottoman Empire, the Viet Cong, the October Revolution, contemporary pop music used by the US military in Panama in 1989, and other sources. The work examines the nature of these songs in the context of modern warfare.
"Returning a Sound"
"Returning a Sound" was filmed on Vieques, a small island adjacent to Puerto Rico where the US conducted weapons testing for sixty years. The result was pollution, noise, and health problems for the island's inhabitants. Testing ceased in May 2003, and the film was made in 2004. "Returning a Sound" is an audio echo of the departed soundscape, a celebration of the victory of a civil disobedience movement, and a plea for ecological awareness and development. A scooter with a trumpet attached to its exhaust pipe becomes a musical instrument reliant on the road and its engine as it traverses the island. The sound, which ranges from an ambulance siren to experimental jazz, is the artist's acoustic marking of areas of the island where explosions once reverberated. Aside from its reflections on Puerto Rico's political situation, the film demonstrates the simplicity and power of a poetic image that resonates with viewers even without knowledge of its social history.
"Wake Up"
"Wake Up" (2007) is a sound and light installation for which the artists invited trumpet players from around the world, working in diverse styles, to interpret "Reveille," a military signal to rouse soldiers. The musicians reimagined and reworked this artifact of musical history, adding new associations and meanings, departing from and sometimes obscuring its militaristic origins.
"Under Discussion"
In "Under Discussion," a fisherman utilizes an upturned conference table as a makeshift boat. This eccentric vessel is sailed along a contested stretch of land. The legs of the table become a frame through which the camera observes the water, the sky, and the strip of earth between them.
"Amphibious (Login-Logout)"
"Amphibious (Login-Logout)" is a contemplative video that calmly observes the daily goings-on along a river's current from the perspective of six turtles perched on a floating piece of debris. Traveling down the river with them, the viewer witnesses scenes along the riverbanks. The morning routines of swimmers, fishermen, and small boats give way to evening views of apartment complexes, industrial docks, and large ships.
