RICHARD
CHARTIER:
WASHINGTON POST (US)
Excerpt
from New Works for Eyes, Earts, and Mind
Nicole Miller
Thresholds
of Sound
Richard
Chartier's sound art is about a different kind of interplay,
between sound and silence. His "Series" requires focused listening,
using a headset, to hear the faint clicks, rattles and hums
that form the minimalist piece.
Some
of the flutters of high-pitched sounds seem like a hearing test.
Periods that seem silent, Chartier says, are filled with high
or low frequencies that a dog might hear, but not a human ear.
But our bodies can perceive what we don't hear.
"People
tend to think that there's a lot of silence in my work, but
most of the pieces don't have a lot of silence on them," Chartier
says.
The
Whitney's associate curator of contemporary art, Debra Singer,
selected Chartier's "Series" for the sound and performance art
component of the biennial. She says she heard about Chartier's
work from another sound artist.
Chartier,
30, was born in Alexandria, grew up in Springfield and lives
in Arlington. He is also a graphic artist, runs the minimalist
sound art label Line, and DJs during "Filler," an evening of
electronic music at the Blue Room in Adams Morgan on Sundays.
He
recently completed a sound installation called "3_components"
for a show next month at Fusebox gallery near Logan Circle.
Three CDs of varying lengths and compositions will continuously
loop on six different speakers. Chartier describes it as "very
audible," compared with "Series," and a "much more physical
experience."
"There's
this subdivision of sound art that deals with thresholds," Singer
says. "Richard's work is the most subtle."
"People
aren't really trained to listen," Chartier says. "You hear noise
all damned day, and people in their mind say: 'I'm not going
to hear that airplane. I'm not going to hear that train going
by where I live. I'm not going to hear the crickets.' "
Chartier
says the sounds he uses aren't recorded but were "built in the
computer." They don't refer to anything identifiable, although
a listener could easily be reminded of static, a video game
or a tuning fork.
Singer
says Chartier caught her ear, because "he's finding these kinds
of rich variations within a sonic palette."
