kaffe matthews' sonic armchair

Wednesday 30 October 2002 - Saturday 2 November 2002

Reading Station

Context

kaffe matthews was invited by Artists in the City to make a new sound work for her sonic armchair. In partnership with Reading College and Reading Station the work was sited during half term week in a glass pod on the station concourse, Reading College's information hub.

Project

Rail passengers were transported by sounds vibrating and circulating through their bodies as they lay stretched out in matthews' huge red velvet sonic armchair. With nine speakers immersed in plush upholstery, the music emerged through the fabric, defying gravity, perverting time, taking the listener away.

Sound artist kaffe matthews created a sensual and vibrating sonic armchair for Reading's travelling public. Recordings from train travel in and around Reading were digitally processed to spin this dynamic space around.

Artist

kaffe matthews is best known for her live and dangerous solo sampling performances all over the world. matthews has worked with kites and the weather on an uninhabited Scottish island, with taut wires in the Australian outback, with mobile phone communication to a New York gallery, and on a journey around Glasgow city centre in a stretch limousine with a female chauffeur. She is fast developing her digital processing skills into multispeaker systems, making clear, precise works, rich and vibrational, tending towards a sparkling mirrored stillness. This is her second piece of sonic furniture - she is currently working on a sonic double bed.

Drop Time was presented in association with Reading College and Reading Station. Sonic Armchair was originally commissioned for Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals' millennium exhibition Don't Worry.