Spectral: Between Light & Sound

The first night of Spectral: Between Light & Sound, showing at North Melbourne’s Art House for only two nights, invites the audience to sit in the black box performance space and let themselves be immersed in various overwhelming situations. Whether it’s watching a video while listening to some ambient live music, or putting in earplugs as an artist redefines the meaning of ‘loud’ and illustrates how physically affecting it can be, or watching transfixed as strobe lights around you form another world, Spectral is a journey for the senses. 

Hanna Chetwin showcases two films, Salt and Opaquing. Salt, consisting of two screens playing close-up images of various geological objects – shells, rock formations, sand, etc – accompanied by live music, is a thoughtful rumination on the matter we, and the world around us, are created from. Opaquing, while having a similar format, though this time with three screens, never seems to reach the same cohesive feeling Salt portrays.

Kusum Normoyle’s performance, titled Solid (Loud) Matter - 2, uses voice and technology to create an overwhelming soundscape, full of screaming and reverberations. While technologically good, it is emotionally draining. 

Robin Fox’s Single Origin, the focal point of the night, implements sound and dancing strobe lights to build an atmosphere unlike any other in the black box venue. Watching the lights flicker to the beat, change colours and shape, and construct prisms above your head is captivating. A high point in the piece is the lights creating a dome and then moving past the seated audience, as though enveloping us and letting us into a little cave - there’s something utterly fascinating about how being in a confined virtual space can instantly make you feel warm and comforted, but when the light moves away, that feeling disappears. This is perhaps the magic of Fox’s art: his ability to demonstrate how just through sound and light our physicality can change.

The pieces showcased in Spectral are not for the faint-hearted. They force you to rethink how we interact with the world, with untouchable things like light and sounds, and the effects they have on our body and mind every day. All three artists are people to look out for during arts festivals – their work is mesmerising.