With this public opening, Foam 3h kicks off 2020 with Sheng-Wen Lo’s (Taiwan, 1987) exhibition Extendable Ears (2019). This project shows how, for a month, Lo continuously exposed himself to ultrasound waves in order to investigate the subjectivity of sound experience. Ultrasound waves exceed the audible human capacity, but can be heard by animals such as cats and dogs.
During the opening of Extendable Ears, the Taiwanese percussionist Yung-Tuan Ku will perform the piece Do you hear them sing? The piece is inspired by and created for this exhibition. By using different objects that create ultrasound waves, like a snare drum and a bat detector, the percussionist lingers between the hearable and the inaudible. Afterwards, there will be time to view the exhibition, have a drink and meet the artist.
Sleep-time Recording, 21-06-2019 © Sheng-Wen Lo
Extendable Ears consists of Lo’s documentation of his month-long experiment. His findings are reproduced in 360o photos, videos of his everyday activities, surveillance-style images of Lo sleeping, and photographic scans of the dream diaries he kept during the experiment and shortly before it began.
In Lo’s view, human-animal relations reflect the values, attitudes and collective memories that people have with respect to their environment. Lo encourages audiences to discuss the relationship between humans and animals. His investigative, yet slightly absurd approach to these issues allows the audience to think about deeply serious topics from a humorous and playful point of view.
> Read more about this exhibition
This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Van Bijlevelt Stichting and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.