Among The Petals

Live music is predicated upon a blindness to the physical structures from which the sound experience emanates: the public broadcast (PA) system. Constructed of hundreds of standardized modular components and distributed through a global network of rental houses, these objects are constantly working, arranged, and rearranged every day on all the world's stages, yet are designed with intentional invisibility.

With a live performance career founded on the exploitation of sound technology, in this newly commissioned installation Among the Petals, composer and sound artist Ben Frost brings sound into sharp focus- using the Momentary's own PA, known as a "line array" -a PA system intended to hang in neat columns at the sides of the stage. Introducing a simple offsetting twist to the arrangement of the speakers, Frost suggests an evolution, transforming these otherwise unremarkable components into a sort of primitive lifeform: part DNA helix, part vertebrae, part furled coil of pure lifeforce. He reimagines a PA as a living, breathing organism and asserting sound as an innately sculptural medium.