Works of Anthony’s within CURIOUS: From Silence included several sets of interactive can-telephones strung with various materials, from wire to pearls; a self-guided zine workshop; and a library of short stories, fairy tales, and research on both the silencing and strength of the female voice against a projection of silenced operatic performances.
CURIOUS: From Silence (2018)
"There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot." - John Cage
Traditionally, we think of the Gallery and Library as silent spaces containing works produced by individual artists or authors. Taking inspiration from the Tate and the Feminist Library, From Silence explores different forms of sound-making as a creative disruption of silence and an investigation of multiple voices and perspectives. In this collaboration, artists and musicians from Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning and the Feminist Library worked collectively and inclusively, devising a range of processes that invite creative input from visitors.
Curated by Nell Catchpole and Jan Hendrickse, Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning, with Minna Hauka and the Feminist Library. Produced by Justin O'Shaughnessy.
Installed at Tate Modern (London) as part of the Tate Exchange program.
Found Videos/Performers: Maria Callas (Tosca, Puccini: Covent Garden 1964) Leontyne Price (Aida, Verdi: Telecast) Birgit Nilsson (La Gioconda, Ponchielli: Telecast) Joan Sutherland (I Puritani, Bellini: Telecast)
"Caught up in the enjoyment [of music and song], the one listener lets herself get totally wrapped up in the sound, penetrated and inundated by it – “like a woman,” as experts on feminine eros would say. But then, the soprano becomes an extraordinarily powerful figure, for she is a woman who not only carries and conquers the semantic in her voice, but also takes the active “masculine” part of the one who penetrates and inundates, or inseminates, the listener.”
For More than One Voice; Toward a Philosophy of Vocal Expression, Adriana Cavarero