FORTUNE TELLER
2023
Sound installation (4 channels)
Pamphlet with listening instructions (digital print, 210 x 297 mm), sound (31:28 min loop), 4 speakers (each placed in one of the cardinal directions)
Fortune Teller is a site-specific work for a forest by Stockholm University. The work consists of a sound composition for four speakers and listening instructions in a pamphlet. The pamphlet was available at the site and at Accelerator (a nearby kunsthalle) throughout the exhibition period, whereas the sounds were only present during the opening evening.
The listening instructions, which can be performed in the forest or in a different location, instruct the reader to move around in their surrounding by finding sounds to follow. By doing so, they compose their own listening experience.
The sound composition is made up of four different graphic scores for clay flutes based on breathing exercises designed to reduce anxiety and stress, interpreted and played in dialogue by Erika Rohlfs and the artist. The flutes used in the recordings, are called ’Lergök’ (Clay Cuckoo) and can only make two tones. In Swedish folklore, the calling of a cuckoo bird can foresee the future depending on its direction. Each recording was therefore arranged for a different cardinal direction and played in a speaker either placed north, south, west, or east.
EXHIBITION HISTORY
Fragments of Forests, Curating Art Stockholms Universitet & Accelerator, Stockholm, 2023. Curators: Linnéa Wästfelt & Jonas Van Kappel.