Chiara Banfi: Notations

In “Notations”, Chiara Banfi shows visual readings of sound through disuse instruments, sheet music and other equipment connected to the production and reproduction of music. The sound of corporeality permeates research Banfi from the start of production in drawings, collages, paintings and performances and in that the individual artist presents now, silence is the keynote of the investigation.
It is not, however, a silence devoid of sound, but of an investigation into vibrations and oscillations not perceived by the human ear or for issues related to different frequencies, or lack of attention to pauses, as important as grades in composition Music.
In Lin Melodic, 2016, thirteen online set stones on the wall are interconnected by RCA cables, which create different sequences between parts, as in old synthesizers that used “patch cords” – cables that were creating different connections between sound modules .
The use of crystals and stones in the work of Chiara began during a search of surrounding sound equipment. Investigating devices turntables, Banfi found that with the needle that reads the vinyl microssulcos was a piece of quartz. The crystal is a natural equalizer and works with the needle to standardize the music reading recorded on discs. The material is now synthesized industrially, since it is essential in equipment that depend rate and frequency, as already mentioned turntable and precision clocks, for example.
Stones generally has in it the ability to transmit vibrations and frequencies. In the work of Chiara they appear in different joints. In Tariff 2016 tourmalines naturally embedded in quartz crystals and organized into five lines, form a kind of rhythmic score. In parts called Confluence, stones and rocks of different origins – and are never found nearby in nature – are connected by the same cable RCA Lin Melodic, suggesting combinations of different sounds.
Already in semi-Quick, 2016, a obvidiana a kind of volcanic glass, shaped like a cubic rectangle is surmounted by a horizontal line drawn with charcoal directly on the wall. The image plays the rhythmic figure (namesake) of longer duration currently used in standard musical notation. The semi-brief should be read as pause for the interpreter a score.
Signs like this are highlighted in Pause Bach, 2016. The facility which occupies the main room of the gallery, 12 books with different music of Bach had their ratings sublimated almost entirely by the artist with India ink, leaving apparent only symbols pause and silence. Johann Sebastian Bach created a musical scale which went on to be a logical rule to build the frequency of notes which is widely used today by Western music, which is organized into 12 semitones (or notes).
The scores also appear in the series Black Tourmaline, 2015. In several notebooks lined for music studies, Chiara encrusted Black Tourmaline stones in rectangular shapes. The presence of Tourmaline refers graphic form of semi-brief and, as its apparently random organization over the pages does not seem to point to a musical construction governed by notes we read his presence as silence marks. This silence, again, is rhythmic, given the profusion with the ore appears on the pages of books.
Tourmalines Negras – 2015
Banfi also presents a new piece of Sound Design series, which started in 2011. In the series, the artist draws with low strings and guitar on the wall, so that the viewer can “touch” the drawings as instruments. In the play in 2016, however, there is no instrument: there is only one effect pedal that promotes distorted without an instrument “master”, creating an indistinct sound, noise or “rumors”. Similarly, the parts called AMP, and the parts of Mutants series, brings the same type of abstract reasoning. AMP, 2015-2016, the artist works from four models of the brand Marshall line amplifiers, keeping only their aesthetic characteristics: finishes, colors and materials, creating abstract pictorial fields, as well as mutants, where a low specially made to Liminha, bassist of the band Os Mutantes and music producer, is recreated synthetically, preserving only plastic characteristics of the instrument. The instruments created by Claudius Dias Batista were largely responsible for the sonic originality of the band. The instrument is here, however, done not by their particular sound, but for their aesthetic qualities.
Finally, in the works of Debussy series Twelve Studies, Banfi copper and erase notes of Claude Debussy scores, creating a new building with the compositions by modifying the use of ratings of the composer. Likewise, in the video tape, 2016 a recording tape roll plunges of a drum base, generating a new sound. It is what is done to record the sound being used to produce music.