Janet Cardiff

TO TOUCH | 1993


The action of passing your hands over the surface of an old carpenter’s table elicits an aural response from audio speakers around the small room. A couple impart their bodily passion while other voices disclose mysterious dream-like events reminiscent of a cinematic suspense thriller. These voices mingle among the familiar sounds of a car screeching, telephone ringing, a knife being sharpened, a gun shot, movie music, a woman softly reciting the alphabet. The viewers’ hands orchestrate this collage, composing layered and provisional tales.

IMBALANCE.6 (JUMP) | 1998


A monitor hangs from the ceiling held by two thin wires. On the TV is a close-up of the artist's feet jumping continually into the air. As the feet land on the floor 2 pneumatic pistons pulse the TV giving the impression that the weight of the landing feet somehow effect the erratic swinging motion of the television swinging it back and forth through the air. This work continues Miller’s explorations of gravity and balance (physical and psychological).

Video here.


The Forty Part Motet (A reworking of “Spem in Alium” by Thomas Tallis 1573)


Forty separately recorded voices are played back through forty speakers strategically placed throughout the space.

Comments by the artist:
"While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.

I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.”