The Voice of Jacob at Dawn
The Voice of Jacob at Dawn takes place at the Oslo opera house in the Bjørvika bay, a site with an industrial history and the centre of aggressive gentrification including the building of Oslo opera house, the new public library, the new Munch museum, and a myriad of realstate projects.
The installation includes sculptures of everyday objects: a flower vase, a floor lamp and a glass of water spinning at speeds so high that the movement becomes virtually imperceptible. The frequencies that these mechanisms produce are harmonised with a soundtrack that includes fragments of music by Anton Bruckner and Jacques Ibert, composers whose music glorifies engines and industrial objects.
Visitors step into a room of a fictional character based on Jacob Jarmann, the founder of Nyland’s Verksted in 1854. This manufacturer, which at one time was Norway’s largest shipyard, was situated at the mouth of the Aker River, where the Opera and the new Munch Museum stand today. Through a series of brief poetic chapters, the piece narrates how Jarman experiences a case of sleep paralysis, a condition where one’s mind appears alert but the body cannot move. His imagination is flooded with fantasies and desires of machines.Visitors are invited to sit on the character’s bed and may notice how the room gradually changes as the story unfolds.
Commissioned for The Munch Museum, Oslo, for Munchmuseet on the Move 2019
Munch Museum / Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo (curated by Tominga Hope O’Donnell) 2019
A version also exhibited as part of Islands, at Zilberman Istanbul on 2019
This project is supported by The Arts Council Norway
