Pictured above: Monika Weiss. Metamorphosis (Nirbhaya). Performance in the Park View of the performance/installation at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, curated by Weronika Elertowska, 2021.
MONIKA WEISS: METAMORPHOSIS (SOUND SCULPTURE)
2024 VISITING ARTIST IN RESIDENCE / KRANZBERG EXHIBITION SERIES ARTIST
OUTDOOR GALLERIES / August 24 - December 15, 2024
The 2024 Visiting Artist in Residence will be Polish artist Monika Weiss. She will present Metamorphosis (Sound Sculpture), a sculptural and sonic memorial dedicated to victims of gender-based violence perpetuated around the world. The installation will be accompanied in the fall by a live vocal performance with participation of local vocalists/volunteers.
The outdoor installation will consist of two metal towers emitting sound, installed along the Park’s wooded Nature Trail. The columns, standing like tree trunks, will project the audio during selected times throughout the day beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset, marking the times of transition in the daily cycle. Viewers may enter the space to experience the ambisonic sound field emitted by the sonic sculptural objects.
The work is inspired by the story of the mythological nymph Daphne who transforms herself into a tree in order to escape the violence of rape. Its sound evokes the moment when Daphne’s skin hardens into tree bark, and her voice becomes the sound of rustling leaves. The ambisonic audio composition is based on Weiss’ recordings of her own acoustic piano improvisations as well as her vocal compositions, which she re-composed electronically into a new whole. Originally composed in five movements, a sixth movement will be introduced into the work based on studio recordings of local vocalists.
In the fall Weiss will be working with volunteers to create a live installation in the Park, composed for voice and space, Metamorphosis (Performance in the Park). Concurrent with Weiss residency, Laumeier is also partnering with the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum at the Missouri Botanical Garden, who will host another piece by the artist, Orge, a choral performance devoted to victims of current wars.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Monika Weiss is a New York-based intermedia artist whose work has been exhibited in over 100 exhibitions around the world. Her solo museum exhibitions include: Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, National Heritage Institution; Lehman College Art Gallery, City University of New York; Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; and Museum of Memory & Human Rights, Santiago, Chile. Her public projects include World Financial Center Winter Garden, New York; City of Dresden, Germany; and Gruenberg, formerly in Germany, now Zielona Gora, Poland. Her selected group exhibitions include: A.I.R. Gallery, New York; North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks; Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany; Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Athens; and Muzeum Montanelli, Prague. Her works are included in collections worldwide, including: Albertina Museum, Vienna; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation; Frauenmuseum, Bonn and CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw among others. She has been awarded numerous grants and residency fellowships, including BRIC, Harvestworks, US Embassy, Poland, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been discussed in numerous books and monographs, and reviewed in The New York Times, ARTnews, Art in America, Sculpture, ArtNexus, and The Prague Post among many others. Since 2011 the artist divides her time between her Brooklyn studio and her professorship at Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. In 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art premiered a 30-min. film with Weiss, in which she addressed the work of Spanish artist Goya and spoke on her own intermedia work that responds to sites and events of trauma and evokes ancient rituals of lamentation.