Guy Goldstein -

The installation consists of 44 amplifiers, built by the artist following three standard drum sizes: bass drum, snare drum and a tom drum. Each of the frames was fit with a scanned image of a well-worn drum leather, printed photographically on the same kind of material. In their spatial arrangement, the 44 boxes are arranged in two groups, each with various sizes of boxes and forming an overall stereo effect. The prints represent drums of different musical traditions of different sizes and shades, collected and scanned after years of heavy use. The photographic reproductions express bear witness to the beating they endured over the years: marks of tears, stretches, stains and accumulated pressure points are the visual signs of the drums’ history of sound.

Emanating from the amplifiers are the sounds of different voices repeatedly and interchangeably repeating the words “yes” and “no” in different languages. The photographs tremble as the sound resonates through them, and the marks on the drums, the past “impacts”, are stirred again. The conversation does not add up to a meaningful exchange, it remains an opposition as it circles through the different languages, implying a conflict that cannot be solved through mediation, and which cannot forget its history of violence but continues to bear its physical and emotional witness.