Wild is the wind
Susan Philipsz

The Comb of the Winds, 11th to the 14th of July 2002

It is the faltering fragile voice of the artist Susan Philipsz that performs an a cappella cover version of the well-known song "Wild is the wind" by David Bowie in a sound installation at the "Wind-comb".
This musical installation performed at a modest listening volume with a simple physical presence in such an emblematic setting as Chillida and Peña Ganchegi's "Wind-comb" conveys a feeling of absorption and inner reflection.
Susan Philipsz is interested in the image created by the trumpet-shaped loudspeakers that look out to sea; trumpet-shaped loudspeakers with nautical references that are also used on beaches that add a touch of nostalgia.
The calculated volume of the sound is designed so that the public come closer to listen to the tune more carefully, and although they may, or may not, be able to recognise it, this triggers the narrative. It also works as a background soundtrack for people who come round to the "Wind-comb".
Susan Philipsz is thinking about the moment in which through the sound (the wind, the sea and the tune mingled together) the people in the audience become aware of themselves.

All this Scottish artist's work is based on the combination of her own voice performing different songs, and the choice of a public space with its own implicit conditions, history and memory. For example, the tune of The Internationale performed a cappella by the artist and broadcast by loudspeakers near an underpass in the Slovene city of Ljubljana for Manifesta 3.
On another occasion in a public art project in Belfast, a small vessel went from one side of the river to the other giving out a lament taken from the well-known film by Richard Fleitcher, The Vikings, with a melody similar to the one on the Viking horn in The International Language, 2001.

Susan Philipsz is from Glasgow. She has lived for the last 7 years in Belfast and is now living in Berlin. She is the founder of Grassy Knoll Productions, and has carried out residencies at the PS1 in New York and the Kunst-Werke Berlin.

Her latest exhibitions have been:
Begane Grond, Utrecht (2002), Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2002), Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyons (2002), Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2002), Gallery of Contemporary Art Bratislava (2001), The International Language, Belfast (2001).

"Wild is the wind" performed by Susan Philipz .
- Listen online: wild is the wind (11 Megas)
(Real Player needed, download it from Real Player )
- Download mp3: wild is the wind (26 Megas)

pict1.jpg Trumpet Speaker in “the Comb of the Winds” 71K pict2.jpg “The Comb of the Winds” by Chillida and Ganchegi 36K pict3.jpg “The Comb of the Winds” by Chillida and Ganchegi 23K pict4.jpg Trumpet Speaker by Susan Philipsz 29K pict5.jpg Speakers. “Wild is the Wind” 52K pict6.jpg Speakers. “Wild is the Wind” 76K