Grounded
2025Domestic lamps intervened by fluorescent starters, electromagnetic field frequency probe, limestone sculpture, steel branches with ultrasonic transducers, timer relay, ultrasonic frequency radios and headphones
Dimensions variables
Grounded is a sculptural sound installation that explores the parallel stresses experienced by coral reefs and the human psyche under the climate crisis. Coral-like steel branches, welded from rebar and embedded in limestone, function simultaneously as sculptural forms and transmitters of ultrasonic frequencies. These frequencies, inaudible to the naked ear and accessible only through handheld radios and headphones, originate from unstable electrical currents—fluctuations that also cause the surrounding lamps to flicker erratically.
In this configuration, the installation translates the instability of electricity—its 'frustration'—into both light and sound. The branches, acting as conductors of this signal, embody an ambiguous tension between malfunction and vitality. Visitors navigate this environment by tuning into the otherwise imperceptible: a sound that resembles a healthy coral reef, yet is rooted in uncertainty. Grounded stages a paradoxical experience—one where the absence of water is saturated with electrical anxiety, and where stress, like current, accumulates quietly in the everyday.
This ambiguity is both personal and intentional. The installation does not seek resolution; instead, it offers space to acknowledge how crisis seeps into daily life, into our bodies, into the nervous flicker of the lights we live with. The soundscape becomes a personal projection—a means of transmitting inner tensions through external materials. In this sense, Grounded is as much a scenario as it is a sculpture, layered with care over crisis. Ultimately, through the vulnerability of bodies—both human and nonhuman—it asks: How conscious are we when we switch on a lamp?
- Installation view, Grounded, 2025. “I hope this finds you well”, Halle I, Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
- Partial view, Grounded, 2025. “I hope this finds you well”, Halle I, Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
- Handheld ultrasonic frequency Radio for listening, Grounded, 2025. “I hope this finds you well”, Halle I, Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
- Partial view, Grounded, 2025. “I hope this finds you well”, Halle I, Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
- Video Documentation, Grounded, 2025, Link: https://vimeo.com/fishtankzip/grounded2025
- Partial view, Grounded, 2025. “I hope this finds you well”, Halle I, Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, Bremen, Germany.