Chime Choir by Julia Elsas is an installation of 1,250 microtonal porcelain chimes. Visitors are invited to interact with the installation and play the chimes with felt hand mallets provided, adding their own music to a continuous loop in the cooler space. The sound loop was created by musicians Kenny Wollesen and William Shore, together with Elsas. They recorded the piece in February 2020 at Figure 8 studio.
Elsas created Chime Choir to be an encompassing communal instrument that people could move in and out of and play freely, simultaneously alone and together over a span of time. Elsas aims to create an environment in which everyone may feel embraced and touched by the music of Chime Choir. COVID-19 forces us to restrict freer movement and limit entrance to one masked and gloved player at a time.
Chime Choir grew out of Elsas’s ongoing exploration of the sonic potential of sculpture. She considers her sculptures to be fully realized when they are being played. To this end, she has organized a series of one-night musical performances, under the name SONIC MUD, which brings together her ceramic instruments and established musicians.
An outdoor reception and performance with SONIC MUD (Eléonore Weill, Julia Elsas, Katie Down, Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke) and Matt Evans will take place at Cooler Gallery on Tuesday, November 10th, 7-9 pm.
