 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shhh...
"A Long Way to go on the Sound Track" Cornelius, the Japanese rock musician, provides an appropriately glassy soundtrack to the glass collection; chiming electric piano tones interlock as one strolls around the sometimes kitsch exhibits, and the sudden sound of smashing glass is a witty turn. Also amusing, David Byrne has placed his interventions in the less glamorous areas of the museum. A symphony of splashes and rhythmic cistern flushes accompanies a visit to one of the listed latrines, while amid the usual museum background noise a panting voice starts to whisper in your ear. In more exalted mood, Liz Fraser, the ex-Cocteau Twins chanteuse, sings a wordless hymn to the Raphael Cartoons, while Simon Fisher Turner transforms a ceramics room into an atmospheric Mediterranean square. Some of the artists seem intent on providing an anti-soundtrack that disrupts one's experience of the art works and spaces. Jeremy Deller accompanies a young girl around the Chinese collection, and we hear her comments - she knows how to say goodbye in six languages. Jane and Louise Wilson populate the dramatic Cast Court with the sounds of children climbing a structure, while Gillian Wearing gives the Bromley-by-Bow room a lengthy interview with a museum employee who is obsessed with the past (and this room).
In an attempt to provide more sympathetic soundtracks, musicians Faultline and Leila present elegant techno workouts; they are fine in themselves, but the experience is no different from wandering around a gallery listening to the latest techno tracks on a personal stereo. Coming from behind, and a surprise contender for stealing the show, is hip hop artist Roots Manuva: the elaborate gilt and multiple mirrors of the Norfolk House Music Room become the setting for a Hammer Horror vampire flick, as the singer invokes Armageddon with a terrifying apocalyptic rant.
This is the V&A's first "sound exhibition"; though occasionally diverting, one can't help feeling there's a long way to go before Britain really does justice to the technical innovation and aesthetic weight out there in the international world of sound art.
� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. |