Caramoor in collaboration with Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, presents Aaron Taylor Kuffner’s Gamelatron Sanctuary: Suara Sinar (The Sound of Light) which is a part of the In the Garden of Sonic Delights Exhibition of 2014. The exhibit runs June 7 through Nov. 2. The opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 8.
Suara Sinar is a site-specific installation that transforms a vast windowless abandoned warehouse on the Peekskill waterfront into a sanctuary of light and sound. In the middle of a pitch black 10,000-square-foot-space there is an oasis of couches, pillows and rugs. Spiraling out from the oasis in concentric circles stretching across the entire space are instruments from a Balinese Gamelan orchestra retrofitted with mechanical mallets mounted in the ceiling trusses.
Twenty-four bronze kettle shaped gongs called Reyong and Trompong, four hanging gongs ranging in size from 23 to 35 inches in diameter, four pair of 9-inch bronze hand cymbals (Kopyak), and two dragon turtles with eight 4-inch hand cymbals (Ceng-Ceng) robotically play day-long sequences of music composed specifically to allow the entire warehouse to function as a resonating chamber. With each sound a pulsation of light bursts from the instrument and fades as the tone diminishes, briefly illuminating a spot in the vastness. Movements of music become a choreographed panoramic dance of light.
Suara Sinar is a refuge, it is a universe unto itself, it is an offering, a respite, an escape and a confrontation.
Visit aarontaylorkuffner.com. The exhibition is on view at 150 N. Water St., Peekskill. See hvcca.org for more information.
