Uprooting Nature

exhibited

+ Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education , Indiana , USA – Earth Day Apr 22 , 2012

UPROOTING NATURE

 Date: 2012

Sound Sculpture  –  Venue: Indianan Dunes, National Lakeshore

Materials: two video projections, two photo inkjet printings on silk of 30 inches x 9 feet, sounds, speakers.

Project Description:

Lincoln Park area has a beautiful nature conservatory, North Pond Nature Sanctuary. The chattering of the sparrows, ducks, geese and other animals can be heard – and seen, throughout this urban nature oasis. Actually, the sound of this whole area is a mix of birds’ chattering and car movement, which is a good example of how the natural life is brought to the human modern life – an uprooting.

I recorded sound and video of the chattering fowl occupying the South portion of North Pond Nature Sanctuary which is near the busy exit of Fullerton’s Lake Shore Drive, then installed my work on the deck – a resting place for visitors situated in nature wildlife scene at the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

I attached two photo printings on silk of North Pond in Chicago and the road next to the pond with the specific sizes that fit the banisters of the deck. The silk is a subtle and thin natural textile, which can be seen through. By that mean, the movement of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore wild life appears behind the landscape of North Pond in Chicago. Urban city and rural nature sights are juxtaposed and are gently blended to each other, addressing the concept of the uprooting and the displacement vividly. Besides, simultaneously the sound recording of the busy chattering birds from the North Pond is playing. The contrast between the birds singing in a natural environment and the birds singing in the city might evoke human’s perception on how animal behavior living in a city is transformed from its natural wild life.

In the final piece, video and sound documentation of the “audience and the natural surrounding” reacting to the sound-sculpture in Indiana Dunes will be presented at SAIC on May 4th 2012.

With this project, I came up with the term “sound sculpture graffiti”.

Uprooting Nature (a document of Ly Hoang’s sound installation) 2012 from Ly Hoang on Vimeo.