“Are You Here?” Sound Activation

Site Activation

Location: Around the spiral staircase in the museum.

January 27th, 28th, and 29th, 1-5PM

You may hear someone sneeze, whisper, walk, talk, tear a paper, shift, shuffle, or sound by happenstance while walking through the stairwell. Are You Here is a site-specific installation where the visual elements occur in the mind of the participant. At the International Museum of Surgical Science, recordings of familiar sounds from everyday life and from human bodies come from unseen corners of the stairwell. This project explores the way sound embodies our physicality without the actual presence.

For more information, visit: https://spiralbody.work/are-you-here

About the artists:

Adrian McBride

Adrian McBride (St. Louis, MO) is a musician and sound artist currently based in Portland, Oregon USA. McBride received BFA in Integrated Arts and Creative Writing from Bard College, and has been performed in the U.S and internationally, including at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland Oregon, U.S.A.; Monkey Town, Brooklyn NY, U.S.A; Flux Factory: Queens NY, U.S.A; Gallery gelegenheiten and Zvi HECKER, Berlin, Germany; Jardins Synthétiques Festival, Toulouse, France.

Mami Takahashi

Mami Takahashi is a multidisciplinary artist from Tokyo, currently resident in Portland, Oregon. Using photography, performance, installation, and urban intervention, her practice explores the complexities of being an Asian woman living in the US.

Previous exhibitions and performances have taken place at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco; DANK Haus, Chicago, IL; The International Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Canada; Gwangju Folk Art Museum, Korea; Instituto Municipal del Arte la Cultura, Mexico and Toriizaka Art Gallery, Tokyo, among other venues. She holds an MFA from Portland State University and a BFA from the Joshibi University of Art in Japan. Takahashi is a recipient of the Ford Family Award for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art residency and the Pacific Northwest College of Art+Leland Iron Work residency.