We are very pleased to welcome to the gallery Switzerland-based artist and media pioneer Andy Guhl on one of his rare visits to New York for an evening of audiovisual performance originating from his apparatus of cracked analog electronics, aka “THE INSTRUMENT”.
Guhl, who with Norbert Möslang founded the duo Voice Crack in 1984 with the mission of modifying everyday appliances to use in sound performances, was aiming at breaking down “ the traditional barrier between everyday items and musical instruments and their acoustic perception”. In 2001 the duo represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale.
THE INSTRUMENT (2001-present) is a diverse array of electronics with optic and sonic properties cracked open and repurposed by Guhl to form a complex feedback system: the projected images are translated into sound, which in turn is retransformed into a visual signal. To complicate this process, which is autonomous and able to generate an infinite feedback loop of sound and projection, is the artist’s physical interaction and interference with the light beams emitted by the projectors.
Guhl will be in attendance and available for a Q&A following the performance.
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Andy Guhl (1952, St. Gallen, Switzerland) played double bass and percussion as a young teenager. At the age of 16 he turned to electronics and began experimenting with the sounds generated using low-voltage current and soldering technology. At the same time he was also taking lessons in classical double bass. He played in a duo, initially with various friends; then, in 1972, he began to form small improvisation ensembles with Gieri Battaglia, Norbert Möslang, Herbi and Bernhard Leuthold. The Möslang/Guhl formation first performed at amateur festivals; in 1977, they took part in the free-music festival organized by Free Music Production in Berlin, where the Deep Voices LP was recorded. Andy Guhl was also a founding member of Switzerland’s first musicians’ co-operative.
In 1984 the duo became Voice Crack, occasionally featuring additional musicians such as Stephan Wittwer, Carlos Zingaro and Günter Müller. Voice Crack began cracking everyday electronics before developing the genre as cracked everyday electronics. By manipulating these objects to produce sounds, they broke down the traditional barrier between everyday items and musical instruments and their acoustic perception. In the 1990s the duo expanded their reach into visual representation of acoustic phenomena with several installations, including the Sound Shifting installation they presented at the 2001 Venice Biennale at the invitation of the Swiss Arts Council. In 2002 Andy Guhl began to branch out on his own with ever more innovative installations using audiovisual feedback in analogue electronic systems which he calls The Instrument, i.e. the expanded cracked everyday electronics. “For me, physics is a musical building block,” says Andy Guhl, “that allows you also to see what you’re hearing.”
Andy Guhl is a pioneer sound artist and one of the fathers of European electronic experimental music. As part of the Voice Crack and Poire_Z music formation, he has been a major influence on many generations of musicians and artists of the international underground and noise movements. He has released over 30 albums and performed at venues and exhibitions in more than 20 countries.