locative listening

This site-specific audio-walk was developed for the exhibition “The Flaneur: From Impressionism to the Present” at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. Taking Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd” as a starting point, it examines the topic of flanerie and presents four alternative characters from fine art and literature as female flaneuses. While listening to their stories, the participant is led through the area surrounding the museum.

“When we think of the woman in the crowd, walking among other people, does she ever turn around and look back? Suddenly having distinct features, a personality, an identity? What if she, in turn, was the flaneur, or rather the flaneuse? One that is not relegated to the periphery? One that has her own way, her own wishes and desires? Is it even possible to think of a figure that transcends this binary opposition of established gender norms?”

Expanded video work that deals with the subjective experience of walking through an urban space that you've never physically been to.As I did in Sardinia, I recorded a tour in Google Street View while still in Cologne, Germany - and without ever having been to Stockholm. As a sound layer, my own voice was recorded, commenting sensations, observations and the sounds that I would imagine to experience while walking through the actual neighbourhood.During a short residency in Stockholm, I proceeded to take the exact same tour as I had virtually, and record the sound with in-ear-microphones, capturing the spatial atmosphere. In the last step, the recording was added to the video, merging different layers of time and space as well.

As foreigners, immigrants, urban nomads and women, how do we negotiate personal space and how is this influenced by the circumstances we live in? In an attempt to create an approximation to these questions and to the participants, a situation was dislocated and recreated from a place regarded as a typically feminine domain in India (and other countries): the beauty parlor.

The title is a reference to both the conversations that form the basis of the audio work, as well as to the performance that was enacted during the exhibition at 1Shanthi Road gallery, in which individual participants received a manicure from the artist.

The performance and accompanying audio work "parlor talk" were developed during the bangaloREsidency in Bangalore, India.

(Originally published on the Public Art Fund website)

Janet Cardiff’s Her Long Black Hair is a 35-minute journey that begins at Central Park South and transforms an everyday stroll in the park into an absorbing psychological experience. Cardiff (b.1957, Brussels, Canada) takes each listener on a winding journey through Central Park’s 19th-century pathways, retracing the footsteps of an enigmatic dark-haired woman. Relayed in a quasi-narrative style, Her Long Black Hair is a complex investigation of location, time, sound, and physicality, interweaving stream-of-consciousness observations with fact and fiction, local history, opera and gospel music, and other atmospheric and cultural elements.

The experience of the walk uses photographs to reflect upon the relationship between images and notions of possession, loss, history, and beauty. The original iteration of the project in 2004 included an audio kit that contained a CD player with headphones as well as a packet of photographs.

Digitized supporting materials for Her Long Black Hair are now available! The artist intends for visitors to listen to the audio tracks while observing the images in the gallery below. We recommend following the directions on the map below and printing the images or opening them on your mobile device while you’re in the park.

As Cardiff’s voice on the audio soundtrack guides listeners through the park, they are occasionally prompted to pull out and view one of the photographs. These images link the speaker and the listener within their shared physical surroundings of Central Park.

Materials provided with the permission of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, with special thanks to Dan Phiffer.

The image of the street comes up on the iPod screen. It appears that it has been shot in the exact location that you are standing in, almost as if it is in real time. A figure walks past on the video as another passes by in the real world, the two realities aligning. The sounds from the headphones are startlingly three- dimensional, further merging the two worlds in front of you. A female voice close behind you says: ‘I think we should get started. Walk with me…’

Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller returned to Edinburgh to make one of the mesmerising video walks for which they are acclaimed throughout the world. Following Cardiff’s voice and walking in her footsteps, you will be led through the backstreets of the Old Town, unravelling a disjointed tale – part game-playing, part surrealistic poetry, perhaps even a murder mystery – layered with history, invention and memories.

This work has was commissioned by the Fruitmarket and is now part of the Gallery’s permanent collection and will be restaged regularly. Acquired by the Fruitmarket with Art Fund support.

It was first presented in partnership with Edinburgh International Festival and in association with Edinburgh Art Festival from 25 July – 25 August 2019.

Supported by The Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller Commission Circle Royal Mile: Dasha Shenkman OBE, Nick Thomas Old Assembly: Melanie Reid Advocates: Sophie Crichton Stuart, Fiona and Kenny Cumming, Sarah and Gerard Griffin, Catherine Muirden and Werner Keschner, William Zachs and Martin Adam