Before Elysium (Time Will Tell) (2023) Sculpture by Kristopher Lionel
Sold by Kristopher Lionel
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Original Artwork (One Of A Kind)
Sculpture,
Wood
- Dimensions Height 89in, Width 24.3in
- Artwork's condition The artwork is in perfect condition
- Fit for outdoor? No, This artwork can not be displayed outdoor
- Categories Conceptual Art
'beFOR ELYSium' (Für Elise) = The title references the tune.
'Before Elysium' is an interactive, sound generating, mechanical sculpture that employs music box combs and cylinders to play Beethoven's 'Für Elise' simultaneously at several times faster than normal, backwards, and at normal speed. The piece also generates a tinkling sound that references rain and waves using a form inspired by rain-sticks which are traditional instruments thought to have originated in Chile.
I've had the idea to make a rain machine bouncing around in my head for many years. I was thinking about the cyclical nature of machines and how they create rhythm, I was thinking about how structured noise becomes music. The sound of pouring rain set to a rhythm becomes the sound of ocean waves, the sound of a few raindrops are like individual notes of music. I've always loved 'Für Elise', it's most recognizable run of notes always makes me think of rain turning into music so I decided to integrate it into my machine. 'Before Elysium', inspired by the sound of rain, of waves, and the noise inside seashells, is the first of what will be an ambitious endeavor to create twenty-four related sculptures intended to be shown together in an exhibition titled 'Time Will Tell'.
The cyclical nature of the machine and the experience of a passing moment while interacting with (becoming a part of) the piece brings time into focus. As I thought about how time informed the work, I began to imagine a huge span of time reaching back before Elysium. In that distant time, people listened to the sound of rain and the rhythm of waves. In that time there was music and all the notes to 'Für Elise' existed but had yet to given the shape of the tune we now know. Reconstructing/deconstructing the notes is my way of blurring the lines between the rain/waves and music, it's an attempt to turn those most famous of notes into rain or vice versa. This piece is the first of twenty-four sound machines in a series called 'Time Will Tell'.
Related themes
SculptureInteractive SculptureMechanical SculptureSound SculptureRain Machine
Christopher Brown is a contemporary American artist. Brown's worldview has been softly but substantially inspired by nature, and as a result, his life and art have been guided by it. His creative process alternates between gazing outward and turning inward. Years of seeing and analyzing the causes and effects of the natural world's changes and decline have given him a clear awareness of the damage we've done and continue to do to the planet. His art serves both an outlet and an antidote for him (shifting between his allegorical, Happy War paintings and his abstract works).
Turning inward and immersing himself in Abstract Expressionism provides him with comfort. Exploring shape, color, and the repetition of line in his work, as well as parsing the layers and visual spaces in his art, is a mantra that frees him from the weight of the world. He began to view his abstract paintings as "music for the eyes", in which shape, color, and line are solely expressionistic notes occasionally blended with representational pictures that appear to be poetic lyrics.
Christopher Brown was born in the USA. Brown attended the art program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, where he received his BFA. He then went on to Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where he received his MFA.
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Nationality:
UNITED STATES
- Date of birth : 1971
- Artistic domains:
- Groups: Contemporary American Artists
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