My first steps into Ruffin Gallery to see Peter Traub’s sound installation, “Solera,” were soft ones—heel-to-toe across the floor, then lightly up the stairs towards the four speakers and microphones Traub mounted into the ceiling of the top floor. It was nearly 5pm, closing time, and the gallery was close to mum. I heard a few students in one of Ruffin’s classrooms chatter, and a door thunk shut. Someone coughed.
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Sound off! Peter Traub enlists Ruffin Gallery and its visitors in the constantly changing composition of “Solera” through November 6.“For 24 hours a day from October 26 through November 7, all sounds in this lobby will be recorded and replayed into the space,” read notes from the artist posted at each entrance to the Ruffin lobby.
“All sounds,” you say? Fair enough.
I coughed, and clicked my pen. I clomped up the stairs. I held my iPod up to a microphone and played a solid 10 seconds of “Act Naturally” by The Beatles, thought to myself, “They’re gonna put me in an art show/ They’re gonna make a big star out of me.”
Such is the fun of Traub’s installation, which records a day’s worth of ambient noise and replays it during each subsequent day, gathering new material as it revisits and reasserts the old—the aural equivalent of an onion growing layer by layer, or a tree gathering rings. The differing schedules of hundreds of students might audibly cohere during the show’s two-week run (it closes on November 6). The warehouse hum of the room may grow to an ominous drone, and our footsteps may resound like steady artillery. Or perhaps not.
What may be most compelling about “Solera” is the personal decision of each visitor to the show. If we truly believe that what we do in life echoes in eternity, do we shout or whisper? Give a final monologue, or a single, simple word? A bang, or a whisper? Traub’s installation is both a blank sonic canvas and a star that will consume particles and expand until it goes dark at the week’s end—go make your noise.
Feedback Session: Corey Harris
When Feedback last checked in with Corey Harris, the local blues musician and 2007 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient was in the thick of recording the follow-up to his 2007 album, Zion’s Crossroads. With the release of his latest, blu.black, Feedback was eager to invite Harris to record a Feedback Session in the C-VILLE office. Harris kindly accepted.
During a 2008 interview, Harris mentioned that his next album was “gonna be an acoustic album,” but blu.black is more of a family affair—a group of songs concerned with affection and protection, appropriately warmed by longtime collaborators like Stable Roots Production leader Peanut Whitley and vocalists Davina and Davita Jackson. Harris’ November 4 show at The Southern Café & Music Hall ($12-15, 8pm) will also be a full-band gig.
Harris’ Feedback Session, however, is a small, unexpectedly potent affair—an acoustic set featuring songs from blu.black, 2005’s Daily Bread and his kinetic version of “Special Rider Blues.” Watch the whole set, and be sure to catch Harris with the Rasta Blues Experience on November 4 at The Southern.
Blood simple
As part of this year’s Virginia Film Festival, Feedback’s alter ego will moderate conversations with writer Alan Ball about his HBO series, “True Blood,” and his Academy Award-winning film, American Beauty. Both events are slated for Sunday, November 8 at Culbreth Theatre. Prepare your questions in advance, people, and head to vafilm.com for more details about the events.
