Aaro Murphy at Kunsthalle Turku
5.5-23.6.2023
Volatile Score is a multimedia installation by Aaro Murphy that explores the potential of air as a means of communication and data transfer. The installation consists of a series of glass and metal flutes that are coded to sing together using a computer coded pneumatic air system. Shifting between robotic entities and scientific instruments the sculptures begin to play and operate seemingly in their own time frame. Gentle bursts of air merge together with field recordings of transit networks, machines and human voice, with a constant attempt to communicate.
The ventilator hums.
It hums and lulls me to sleep
from low baritone to metallic high notes.
Churning and pumping
its thick air into my subconscious.
Mild soothing air hugging me
while I lay on the floor.
Soothing, neverending
fans blowing into my apartment
melting the sound of passing cars below.
Green flashes of light cascading shimmering scales onto my plastic ceiling.
Aaro developed a large part of the work during the Tokyo Art & Science research residency in 2022, organised by the Bio Art Society, Finnish Cultural Institute of Japan & Bio Club Tokyo. The work extends Murphy’s research into machine olfaction and air technologies into material form, creating a phantasmagoria of self operating machines. The project extends Murphy’s previous material exploration with glass and metal from ‘Running Idle’ & ‘Echo’, 2021, into a larger scale architectural form.
The sound for the work has been composed by artist Duncan Robertson.
Coding by Marcel Smit.
The project is kindly supported by the Finnish Art Society, Young Artists Grant and the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux.
About the artist
Aaro Murphy (1991, Finland) is a visual artist working across media such as sound, video, and smell. Murphy creates time-based sculptures and installations that question boundaries between the animate and inanimate, the organic and synthetic. A recurring theme in his practice is the ability for machines to adopt performative potential and augment space. The sculptures he creates often act autonomously in their own time shifting between robotic beings and instruments, from the musical to the scientific. Murphy graduated from the Sandberg Institute in 2017 and has previously exhibited works at Art Rotterdam, Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Lokaal Helsinki and Bologna.cc Amsterdam. He currently lives and works between Amsterdam and Finland.
Aaro Murphy is currently a research fellow at the Studio for Immediate Spaces at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, researching architectural olfaction and machine sensing – speculating on the current and future possibilities of smell as airborne data. In 2022, Murphy was selected for the Tokyo & Art Science Research Residency, hosted by The Finnish Bio Art Society and BioClub Tokyo in partnership with the Finnish Institute in Japan.
Learn more about the Aaro Murphy’s work.
Practical Information
5.5-23.6.2023
Kunsthalle Turku
Vanha Suurtori 5, Turku
Open Wednesday to Friday at 12–18, Sat and Sun at 12–16