Christie Contemporary is pleased to present Swan Song, featuring new work by Marla Hlady and Christof Migone, on view until July 4.

Swan Song consists of two stills from the Balvenie Distillery that were retired on June 28, 2019 after serving for 12 years. The swan neck portions of the stills were then cut and, because their shape resembles the horn of a gramophone, Swan Song uses them as resonators for sound. Through each swan neck we play recordings we made throughout the distillery: Robbie Dhu Spring cairn where the water first enters the Glennfidich property, the cooperage floor where casks are being repaired, vats were barley goes through the various stages of germination, bottling floor, a choir made up of staff working at William Grant & Sons (which houses Balvenie and Glenfiddich distilleries). Each member of the choir volunteered to contribute two short voice recordings, one the highest pitched sound they could produce, and one the lowest. They were asked to hold the sound for as long as possible. The recordings are triggered by devices that mash them up. They are treated kinetically. They are distilled acoustically. They are mangled mechanically.

Sampler is a series of objects and materials that relate to our time at the distillery, all with a playful touch and some, with an aural bent. Sample bottles, flask, copper, anthracite, earplugs, and more, all behaving oddly. They are assembled in ways that bend their usual role. Some are solo, others are paired. Most are inert, one spins, another sounds. They are absurdist tests. They cannot be proven or disproven. They teeter, they unfold, they puzzle.

– Marla Hlady & Christof Migone

MARLA HLADY draws, makes sculpture, works with sites and sounds and sometimes makes video. Hlady’s kinetic sculptures and sound pieces often consist of common objects that are expanded and animated to reveal unexpected sonic and poetic properties often using a system-based approach to composition. She’s shown widely in solo and group shows including SFX Seoul 2019, Manif D’Art 6 (Quebec City), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (Buffalo, NY), Oakville Galleries (Toronto), YYZ Artist’s Outlet (Toronto), Klink and Bank (Reykjavik, Iceland), New General Catalog (Brooklyn), the Art Gallery of Calgary, Apexart Gallery (New York), Museo di San Domenico (Imola, Italy), The Power Plant Gallery (Toronto), The Nunnery (London, England). She has mounted site works in such places as the fjords of Norway, a grain silo as part of the sound festival Electric Eclectic, an apartment window in Berlin, a tour bus in Ottawa. Recent collaborations include artist Christof Migone, musician Eric Chenaux, choreographer-dancer Shannon Cooney. She currently lectures in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media (University of Toronto at Scarborough) and is Graduate Faculty in Visual Studies (Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto). 

CHRISTOF MIGONE is an artist, teacher, curator, and writer. He often works with language, voice, bodies, performance, intimacy, complicity, and endurance. He obtained an MFA from NSCAD in 1996 and a PhD from the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University in 2007. He has performed and exhibited internationally. A monograph on his work, Sound Voice Perform, was published in 2005. In 2006, the Galerie de l’UQAM in Montreal presented a mid-career survey of his work accompanied by a catalog entitled Trou. A book compiling his writings on sound art, Sonic Somatic: Performances of the Unsound Body was published in 2012 by Errant Bodies Press. He has been the recipient of commissions from the Tate Modern, Dazibao, Kunstradio, Centre for Art Tapes, New Adventures in Sound Art, Radio Canada, New American Radio. He is a founding member of Avatar (Québec City). He lives in Toronto and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University in London, Ontario.