Apple Concert (Los Angeles)

Jan-Erik Andersson & Shawn Decker: Apple Concert (Growth, Pollination, Consumption, Digestion), performance and wall version, 2016. Fin_Between exhibition, Gallery 1, Los Angeles 3.12.2016 – 5.1.2017. The Fin_Between exhbition was curated by Ville Laaksonen and Arte organisation together with Kio Griffth and Irie Ichiro.

Visual artist Jan-Erik Andersson (Turku) and sound artist Shawn Decker (Chicago) have collaborated on a regular basis since 1996, when Andersson was visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where Decker was a professor in the Art & Tech department. In their initial collaboration they researched eating sounds and settled on the apple as the absolute ”sound machine”. A number of their performances since have continued this exploration of the sounds and iconography of the apple. At the Arena 1 gallery in Los Angeles the duo performed a live concert in four parts each exploring various sounds from the life of an apple and where the Chorus will include the sound of the audience eating apples:

1. Prelude: Pollination. Sound environment created by Decker.
2. Apple solo. Andersson eats an apple in front of the audience. The sounds are transformed by Decker’s sound equipment.
3. Chorus. An interactive part where the audience eat apples handed over to them by assistants. Only the natural eating sounds are heard.
4. Finale: Digestion in the garden of Good and Evil. Sound environment created by Decker using both real time- and pre-recorded sounds of the apple digesting in Andersson’s stomach.

The wall version was first installed in the Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica Art Studios, Los Angeles, as a part of the Fin _Between exhibition, 225.

A video presenting the Apple concert performance is a collage, using footage from three different performances:

The wall version of the Apple Concert is made to be installed in exhibitions. The sounds in the wall version are taken from three different live performances. It consists of thirteen apple-speakers. Nine of them are mounted on the wall. On the surface of these is a digitally modified picture of an apple cut in half, with a pentagram made of seeds in the centre. Two of the speakers, placed on the floor, are casted in the earth around an apple, which then is carved out to leave room for the speaker. The rest of the floor speakers are “normal” speakers with golden paint in the middle, which gives them a feeling of “golden apples”. A vintage apple crate covers the sound technology.