Music for Topographies by Juan Cisneros (photos by Ryan Thayer Davis / courtesy of Co-Lab Projects)
The best art offers connections. It fosters recognition deep in the soul, or forces synapses to click toward new ways of thinking. It draws disparate threads together. Those threads can actually tether the viewer to one spot, guiding their mind toward carefully presented ideas. Artist/musician Juan Cisneros presents his own “Tethered Ashes” in Co-Lab’s outdoor space, a mystical concrete culvert among grassy patches and hanging lights. His art delves into the interconnectivity of sound and space, and the indeterminate art forms created among them. Exploded instruments stand against snippets of composition notes and mapwork, formations digging through cacophonic space to grasp moments of (sometimes literal) harmony.
The elusive nature of place sneakily plays into Cisneros’ work. In some pieces he seems to map out something specific, searching out unknown entities, but those attempts only display eternally shifting borders. For instance, a large central piece, The City plays itself, seems to depict Earth itself when viewed from afar. Graphite-sketched circles filled with shaded topographical lines look like continents and wisps of clouds. Closer observation reveals a small dot for Vegas, and a religious cross not far off, as concrete location markers. But the lines extend through the circles with no discernible destination. They could be rivers, streets, paths. Who knows? This geographic investigation continues in Behavioral Probability Variables, where QWERTY keyboard innards create cybernetic maps against dark soundproofing foam. The same foam appears in Negative Peace, where exploded metal debris, like a broken guitar pick guard, forms islands against the black-ridged lines of the dense background.
Cisneros’ art delves into the interconnectivity of sound and space, and the indeterminate art forms created among them.
Cisneros isn’t content with merely exploring physical lands. He also searches for musical connections, integrating instruments in sound-based pieces. In Music for Topographies, the curved wings of a deconstructed Stratocaster crown a tower of plywood speakers and subwoofers. Near the bottom, the deconstructed Strat body features a single pickup dialed into the amplifiers, projecting expansive, organlike tones. The reverberating notes hit like the eerie ambience of far-off chatter on a quiet day. Ever sat in a quiet place and listened to whatever noise carries on the wind? That feeling is channeled here and in companion piece Music for Circular Logic, where a piano’s soundboard stands with metal pipes hovering above the strings, creating sonorous contributions in the echoey culvert.
Detail of Juan Cisneros’ Behavioral Probability Variables
It culminates in a multimedia tour de force, 48 Gestures. That work features blank printed guitar tabs, presented in a grid of six across and eight down. Each holds a squiggled line that looks like an inscrutable hieroglyph at first. A QR code to the side leads the viewer to Music Mouse, a software developed by designer and electronic composer Laurie Spiegel. Dragging your finger across Music Mouse’s own square grid produces a tinkling tune, automatically adjusting to create the purest chord progression possible. Through the squiggles, Cisneros composed an adjustable score, a melody changing with each individual interpretation of speed and emphasis. No two experiences sound the same; they’re based on where the viewer starts on the Music Mouse, what they rush through, what they hold. There’s no universal path to creation in the gestures. Only guidelines.
“Tethered Ashes” glories in the journey of possibility. Presenting all these potential visual and aural pathways creates a shockingly harmonious experience. It unites the viewer in curiosity, wandering, and the quick moments of finding truth amidst the noise. Cisneros harnesses nature’s true balance: the balance of chaos.
“Tethered Ashes”
Co-Lab Projects, Saturdays 12-6pm
Through March 29
