11.10.08 – 08.11.08
Front and Main Gallery
21:100:100
One Hundred Sound Works by One Hundred Artists from the 21st Century
Presented in partnership with The Melbourne International Arts Festival and MONA

Curated by Alexie Glass, Emily Cormack, Marco Fusinato, Oren Ambarchi Collaborators: Fabio Ongarato, Jared Davis, Kristy Edmunds

“When we separate music from life we get art.” John Cage

Presented as part of the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival , 21:100:100 features 100 works by 100 sound artists produced in the 21st Century. This exhibition is the first significant survey to explore and chronicle the extraordinary developments that have occurred in contemporary sound art this century.

Today, Sound Art and Experimental Music enjoy an infrastructure all of their own, with journals, labels, music festivals and websites devoted to its critical and creative discussion. This ambitious concept has been developed with the premise that the foundations of both sound art and contemporary art share a similar spirit of enquiry and experimentation, and whilst the discussion of their relationship is a lively one, this exhibition will be the first to present such a breadth of sound work to Australian audiences within a gallery context.

21:100:100 was developed by Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces in collaboration with internationally acclaimed Australian artists Oren Ambarchi and Marco Fusinato. It includes work made in the last eight years chronicling new directions and innovations in sound art. These works will be played on 100 headphones suspended within the gallery, creating a space for the visitor to pick their way through sound art’s many and varied aural and conceptual evolutions.

The exhibition spans a range of threads and styles within the art form, featuring work by a diverse selection of the worlds leading practitioners with confirmed artists including: Phill Niblock (USA); Sunn o))) (USA); Fennesz (Austria); Steve Roden (USA); Otomo Yoshihide (Japan); Fennesz (Austria); Sonic Youth (USA); Jandek (USA); Sun City Girls (USA); Dead C (NZ); Jim O’Rourke (USA) with many more artists to come.

As co-curator Alexie Glass states “Melbourne has always enjoyed an incredibly lively sound art community and has been a central site in the investigation and presentation of sound art in a music festival context. 21:100:100 provides a truelly unique and crucial opportunity to fully engage with sound art, and to trace it’s varied thematic threads, and innovative stylistic developments. It is the first exhibition of its kind and is one of the most important sound art exhibitions in Australian history.”