Anri Sala's subterranean installation is out of this world
Albanian artist Anri Sala's hypnotic film and sound installation, Time No Longer, in Houston's Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, pays homage to African American astronaut and saxophonist Ronald McNair
Anri Sala’s work explores the moment between the tangible and intangible. It exists somewhere between a time and a space, perhaps even ricocheting between the two. Sala’s thought-provoking and evocative time-based work goes to often difficult places, giving voice to thoughts, feelings and events for which language is not enough.
His latest major work is a monumental installation at the Bayou Buffalo Park Cistern, an underground reservoir in Houston, Texas. It combines film, sound and installation, tapping into the sense of equanimity of above and below that the artist associates with the ‘Space City’. Titled Time No Longer, the immersive work is inspired by African American astronaut and saxophonist Ronald McNair, who was launched on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 with the intention of recording music in space. Had the rocket not exploded seconds after take-off, he would have.
Subterranean and vast, the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is 87,500 sq ft large and 25ft tall, with 221 columns throughout. It evoked space exploration to Sala, who visited the space with one idea in mind, but recalled the story of McNair when standing inside the unique structure and went with that instead.
‘Every person who travels so far away from Earth is a pioneer by nature, but McNair was also a man who aimed to be the very first person to seriously record music in space,’ Sala says.
Projected intermittently onto translucent Hologauze is a turntable, floating, weightless. The stylus grasps for purchase on the record’s grooves, sometimes managing to communicate music, other times skipping and revolving back into space resonant of the moment McNair never played. As the motion repeats we hear snippets of music.
‘It’s like a train of thought, or of music being continuously interrupted and us somehow wanting to make sense of this interruption,’ Sala explains.
The screen is only visible when the film is projecting, leaving the viewer to contemplate the space in darkness. When the film is running, it is reflected in the surrounding water, creating the illusion of infinite turntables tumbling through infinite space.
The work’s soundtrack is a mixed clarinet and saxophone rendition of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, perhaps the most famous piece of music composed in captivity. Written by Messiaen while in a German prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War, the music communicates a deep sense of loneliness for Sala.
In the recording, it’s hard to distinguish one instrument from the other, a deliberate effect. ‘Sometimes it sounds like one and sometimes like the other. It is also playing with this idea that the clarinet might sound like a saxophone before it exists, in a sense asking what would a song sound like before it plays?’
The original music McNair intended to record was due to feature on the album Rendez-vous, in collaboration with French composer Jean-Michel Jarre. It was later performed and recorded by Jarre at a tribute concert following the accident. Sala has used jazz in his work previously and is drawn to the music for its lack of narrative. The work Long Sorrow (2005) saw him suspend the saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc 60ft in the air from a disused housing project in Berlin.
‘He was anchored in space and he used music as a way to make his mind drift away from the situation he was in, while Time No Longer is the other way around, because it's about drifting in space, like the turntable, but being anchored in time.’
Time No Longer, like Long Sorrow and Answer Me (2008) – which was shot in a geodesic dome at Teufelsberg in Berlin – relates to its architecture. ‘I like to find a narrative that conveys the attributes of the space. One which treats the space as if it was an organ, not merely a receptacle.
‘In other words, I tend to try to approach space as an instrument, rather than a backdrop to a narrative that’s being played solo within it.’ Sala explains. ‘When the space becomes tangible, allowing it to play a collaborative part in a form of retelling, it elicits curiosities about context and history, quite unlike and beyond those that storytelling conveys.’
A performance without a performer, a lonely turntable floating through space, this reflective work speaks to the experience of many of us in recent times.
INFORMATION
‘Time No Longer’, until 12 December 2021, Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, Houston
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
ADDRESS
105b Sabine St
Houston, TX 77007
Amah-Rose Abrams is a British writer, editor and broadcaster covering arts and culture based in London. In her decade plus career she has covered and broken arts stories all over the world and has interviewed artists including Marina Abramovic, Nan Goldin, Ai Weiwei, Lubaina Himid and Herzog & de Meuron. She has also worked in content strategy and production.
-
Into the groove: Henriksen House is the UK’s first home extension featuring exposed clay block walls
Architect Michael Henriksen uses textured clay blocks, cork flooring and self-built joinery to transform his family home in St Albans near London
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Gather round: ‘Inequalities’ symposium at the Triennale Milano
Ahead of the 24th International exhibition at the Triennale Milano next year, 26 leading thinkers, curators and activists unpicked the theme ‘Inequalities’
By Will Jennings Published
-
Mud celebrates turning 30 with a new Islington store
To celebrate its 30th anniversary Mud opens a new Islington store, showcasing its Australian ceramics where beautiful design meets utility
By Jasper Spires Published
-
'Anything I put out into the world, I want to be a prayer': musician Laura Marling on eschewing traditional merch for tarot-inspired prints
As Laura Marling prepares to release her eighth album, 'Patterns in Repeat', Craig McLean learns about another artistic pursuit that occupies her time
By Craig McLean Published
-
'She made me feel like I could, and should, be myself': SOPHIE's friends and collaborators on her enduring legacy
It's been nearly four years since boundary-breaking electronic music producer and artist, SOPHIE, tragically passed away. As fans are gifted a last, posthumous album completed by her loved ones, music critic El Hunt reflects on her remarkable legacy
By El Hunt Published
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West
‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Balenciaga Music and Italian singer Mina collaborate on wearable music
Balenciaga Music has collaborated with Italian singer and style icon Mina, which marks her first foray in working with a fashion house and launching official merchandise of any kind
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Pharrell Williams on his new space-themed Lego set and movie
Pharrell Williams tells Wallpaper* why he is so excited about working with Lego
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Artists reflect on David Bowie's life and lyrics for a War Child auction
Artists, including David Bowie's childhood friend and album art designer, George Underwood, have interpreted a David Bowie lyric for an upcoming War Child exhibition and auction
By Hannah Silver Published
-
From ‘Masseduction’ to ‘All Born Screaming’, browse St. Vincent's fashion archive
St. Vincent has perfected the art of stage presence. As part of her October 2024 Wallpaper* guest editorship, she invites us for a tour of her fashion archive, unpacking her past looks and personas
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Guest editor St. Vincent and Alex Da Corte on making the dark and uncanny world of All Born Screaming
St. Vincent is a Wallpaper* guest editor for 2024. Here, the shape-shifting musician deliberates with her long-time collaborator, conceptual artist Alex Da Corte, about the human condition, finding inspiration in dark places, and the merry dance with chaos that is a creative's path
By Charlotte Gunn Published