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Cardiff & Miller - Something Strange This Way

Cardiff & Miller - Something Strange This Way

Something Strange This Way er titlen på ARoS’ store præsentation af seks enestående multimedie-installationer af det canadiske og internationalt anerkendte kunstnerpar Janet Cardiff (f. 1957) og George Bures Miller (f. 1960)

The majority of those interested in art will know Cardiff and Miller as sound artists. Many of us will have experienced, or heard about, their so-called ‘walks’ with Cardiff’s intimate and thoughtful voice guiding us through public spaces. However, though sound is prominent and still constitutes the key element in Cardiff and Miller’s works, they also work within many other kinds of media. Since the mid-1990s they have created a number of large, interactive and spectacular installations featuring sound, music, narrative, found objects as well as compelling light effects. These are the kinds of art works that form the core of the exhibition Something Strange This Way at ARoS. 

The title of the exhibition Something Strange This Way refers to mysterious places, amusement parks and museums where strange and bizarre forces are at play. Like a large number of Cardiff and Miller’s works the exhibition plays on our expectations; they provoke our curiosity and seduce us, before twisting and revealing a new dimension.

PLAYING TO ALL THE SENSES

Cardiff and Miller deliberately use effects from melodrama and from the entertainment industry. The bright and gaudy staging, the unexpected sequences of events, and the pulsating lights entice us like the rides in the amusement park. Their theatrical and carefully choreographed moods are accomplished through the use of sound, light, and special effects. They successfully simulate lightning, thunder and the passing of trains that make everything tremble. The artists manage to achieve this without making the works look like hollow glittering shells. On the contrary, even though it is the visual appearance of the installations that draws us to them in the first place, they contain substance, a myriad of literary, musical, historical and filmic references. They make up narratives of longing and desire, of loss and love. The artists combine them with musical fragments taken from opera, rock and burlesque folk music composed by either themselves or others, with mechanized objects and instrumental animation throughout.