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Singing at a loud party
Solo exhibition at Bungalow, Berlin, Germany
6 March – 17 April 2021
Exhibition text :
“Ryder Morey-Weale presents Singing at a loud party, a sculptural and sound installation whose starting point began during his participation in a research program in Shanghai, China, that was abruptly interrupted by the Covid-19 crisis. Shortly before abandoning the city, Morey-Weale started to film and record the sound of caged birds in the city’s streets, whose singing has become influenced by the surrounding sounds of the megalopolis. Instead of singing to fellow birds, the birds had begun to respond to human generated sounds, such as motors passing by, electrical alarms and mobile phones.
The exhibition at Bungalow further expands upon this situation through an eco-fiction where the birds are present in Berlin, in a basement facing Ritterstrasse. Sounds of passersby, car traffic and construction across the street infiltrate the basement, mingling with the bird songs. Several sculptures are disposed throughout the space and connected together by speaker cables, as if they are in a state of charging. Made with hardened textile and based on fabric designs used to shield the bird cages in outdoor settings, an orchestra of bird songs can be heard, into which alarm sounds become gradually integrated.
Seemingly in a state of rest, yet defying the calmness that is meant to be imposed by the obscuring covers, the birdsongs progressively seep out into the space. By depicting their morphing calls, the installation implies a reactive and tenacious urban fauna taking forms of resistance, as well as volatile ecologies which bring into question our anthroprocentric belief in a static natural environment. For the duration of this exhibition, the space becomes a temporary zone of collective rehearsal and auto-transformation.”