In Justina M. Barnicke Gallery <\/em>the stages overlap and interact in both physical and aural space and the resulting conceptual interaction between the different projects enhances the complexity of the overall experience. Unintentional, subtle ties exist between the projects, creating a coherent whole that is pleasing to explore and experience of a physical space created from silence and sounds.<\/p>\n Rafael Lozano-Hemmer<\/em>\u2019s installation Last Breath<\/em>\u00a0is the largest piece\u00a0in the East Gallery. It combines the sound of breathing and the sound of a brown paper bag inflating and deflating endlessly by circulating the breath of a human being. The set-up is loose, and almost casual. Yet the sound of the breathing is anything but reticent. The familiar sound, increased in magnitude, becomes alien and strange, and almost oppressive. When is it the last breath? One never knows.<\/p>\n Mitchell Akiyama<\/em>\u2019s installation Ur-sound<\/em>\u00a0consists of written words, a photograph of a skull, and a monotonous yet haunting soundtrack: a gramophone needle running through the coronal suture of the human skull trying to reconstruct the first “original” sound on Earth. Installed across the room from Last Breath,<\/em> the turning of the record and the sound of the inhaling and exhaling, accompanied by the crunching of the paper bag, sounds really\u00a0strange like\u00a0strong wind\u00a0trapped in a human\u00a0skull.<\/p>\n Sylvia Matas<\/em> is an interdisciplinary artist known for her minimalist works. In Every Direction<\/em>, the title is both literal and conceptual, the pages spread out not following any particular order. Most of them covered entirely by arrows, pointing in every direction. Some of their comments are\u00a0on environmental issues, others describe sounds. There is a \u201clist\u201d of the sounds of wood, both in their living tree forms and anthropogenic crafted wooden format, as well as a chart of the calls of various species of owls. The atmosphere of the piece is quiet, filled with tiny movements, leading to contemplation.<\/p>\n The London-based Neil Klassen<\/em> exhibits the only piece that associated with sound \u2013 the trumpet in Requiem and Ruin #1<\/em>. The tar-engulfed trumpet sits trapped in shiny black, permanently silenced. Directly above it is the print Requiem and Ruin #2<\/em>, a brick wall in the middle of nowhere, a visual manifestation of\u00a0 the blockage of sound.<\/p>\n David Merritt<\/em> in his two delicate, hand-drawn pieces (Untitled, Here<\/em> and Untitled, There<\/em>, 2007) invites the viewers to get up close, and perhaps bring a magnifying glass. Lines crawl across the two large composition like delicate stitches of thread, mapping out song-titles emphasized by the absence of sounds as the faint, on-again off-again lines echo this playful game of hide-and-seek.<\/p>\n John Wynne<\/em> is a multimedia artist who often emphasizes the aural as part of his installations. Cold Atlantic<\/em>, a very personal piece, was inspired by his father. Wayne creates a powerful piece by combining the old man\u2019s left-behind hearing aids and a projection of the Atlantic landscape. The simple set-up somehow moves the viewer even before the description for the artwork has been read, radiating a nostalgic feeling, emphazized by\u00a0deep blue light.<\/p>\n In Sweeper<\/em>, a 17 minutes video, crys cole<\/em> is focusing on another mundane sound \u2013 the sound of sweeping, of a broom scraping across the floor. It is distilled and amplified, much like the sound of breathing in Last Breath<\/em>. The highly detailed sound of the sweeping is contrasted against the low image quality of the video and the distance of the sweeper in the footage. The juxtaposition startles and asks the viewer to stand back and re-analyze the \u201cnormality\u201d of everyday life \u2013 a presence that is so pervasive and still so easily becomes absent.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Volume_poster_small_cropped.jpg\" "\\"Volume_poster_small_cropped\\"")
<\/a>The poster of the show. University of Toronto Art Galleries, 2013<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Last Breath, 2012<\/p>\n<\/a>Mitchell Akiyama, Ur-sound, or, the noise no one writing can store, 2012<\/p>\n<\/a>Sylvia Matas, In Every Direction, 2011<\/p>\n<\/a>Neil Klassen, Requiem and Ruin #1, 2011<\/p>\n<\/a>John Wynne, Cold Atlantic, 2007<\/p>\n