Liverpool Biennial 2010 Touched trailblazer: an evocative and poignant work featuring a thousand hand-blown glass bells and polyphonic sound filling the Oratory in Liverpool
Visitors to the Cathedral's Biennial exhibitors may also want to stop off at the Oratory in St James Cemetery to see this stunning installation.
Brazillian artist Laura Belém’s beautiful new installation is composed of a thousand cast glass bells and a polyphonic sound track creating a 3-D effect. It is a new commission and trailblazer for Touched, Liverpool Biennial’s International 10 exhibition.
The Biennial at Liverpool Cathedral
The Cathedral is delighted to be part of the Biennial and exhibiting works by Tony Cragg RA in the well and artists in residence Jane Poulton and Lin Holland with Earth and Aether in the Chapter House
Sound will move between loudspeakers in the Grade I listed building, unveiling an ancient legend about a temple of a thousand bells that was built on an island. Over the centuries, the island sank into the ocean, and with it, the temple. As the story unfolds, it reveals the attempts of a sailor to hear the music of those bells. The narration will be interspersed by specially composed music, and sound effects that will strengthen spatial and time relations while addressing the emotions and senses.
The one thousand bells of blown glass will hang from the roof of the Oratory, to complement the fine classical architecture of the space. The bells are without clappers - the only sound will come from the recorded audio: a visual metaphor to match the narrated legend of the lost music of the bells in the depths of the ocean. The mass of clear, translucent glass bells will evoke water, notions of spirituality, fragility and evanescence. They may also suggest lyricism, dreams and imagination.
Artist Laura Belem said, “My intention is to show a work that can touch the viewer’s ‘inner self’ – heart and soul – something we share universally and that transcends geographic and cultural boundaries. I am also interested in altering or creating other levels of perception of a public space for people in Liverpool.”