Event 1 - Gareth Walsh Exhibition: DOW JONES – A SOLFÉGE ECONOMY

(Figure 1 Me at the Gareth
Walsh Exhibition with the artist in
background.)

For my first event, I attended the Gareth Walsh Exhibition in the Art|Sci Gallery of CNSI right on campus. The exhibition was held on October 31^st and exhibited Walsh’s DOW JONES—A SOLFÉGE ECONOMY.

Immediately walking into the gallery, I was fairly overwhelmed with the cramped, dark and loud room.  On the wall there was three high-definition televisions placed next to each other showing people in business attire signing different notes. However, after the artist was done examining everyone’s initial reaction, he began to explain his piece.

(Figure 2 DOW JONES –
 A SOLFÉGE ECONOMY.)

Walsh explained that this signing portrait is meant to represent the United States Stock Market and Economy. He further explained that the portrait is in real-time and each business person represents a different stock. Every time a high note is sung by a person, the particular stock they represent has went up, and each time a low note is sung the stock has gone down. By creating “a continuous sound of economic highs and lows” the DOW JONES—A SOLFÉGE ECONOMY exhibition is meant to interpret the “fluctuations in share values from companies in the Down Jones Industrial index”.

(Figure 3 Gareth Walsh)

According Walsh’s web page, his work is “informed by direct experience and an on-going curiosity towards human perception, technology and art”.  This ongoing investigation into the comprehension of art in relation to other things allows Walsh’s work to question the boundaries of perceived reality.

Although at first this exhibition seemed rather boring and a little confusing, after listening to the artist speak about his work I finally began to appreciate the signing portrait. While listening to the continuous sound of high and low notes from different stocks, I really began to feel inseparable from the piece. Even though the piece really only did one thing and may be considered repetitive after a while, for some reason the differing notes kept me intrigued. I felt that I was actually experiencing the highs and lows of the stock market. Although I believe this was just a one-time exhibition at UCLA, I would highly recommend viewing one of Walsh’s exhibitions. 

On a side note, the dark room made my pictures turn out horribly, so I had to find some online pictures to show you guys. 

Works Cited

Figure 1. Cuevas, Gabriela. Leigh Sanders. 2013. Photograph. n.p. Web. 2 Dec 2013.

Figure 2. Walsh, Gareth. DOW JONES – A SOLFÉGE ECONOMY. 2013. Photograph. n.p. Web. 2 Dec 2013. <http://users.design.ucla.edu/~gwalsh/gareth-walsh.com_v2/templates/Dowjones.jpg>.

Figure 3. Gareth Walsh. 2013. Photograph. UCLA Design Media ArtsWeb. 2 Dec 2013. <http://dma.ucla.edu/_content/global/headshots/walsh_gareth.jpg>.

Walsh, Gareth. "Gareth Walsh." UCLA Design Media Arts. UCLA Design Media Arts. Web. 2 Dec 2013. <http://dma.ucla.edu/faculty/profiles/?ID=84>.