SONIC DOME: AN EMPIRE OF THOUGHT
Sound Installation with fibre-glass, metal, wood, sound tweeters

 About the Work:

Marking the first time that a sound artist is represented at the Singapore Pavilion, Zulkifle Mahmod’s (Zul) sound installation, ‘Sonic Dome - An Empire of Thoughts’ evokes a repertoire of ideas and ideologies relating to the notion of Empire. These include references to the legendary Venetian Empire during the 13th to 17th centuries when it was a thriving mercantile and maritime republic. The Venetian Empire has since been invoked as a complex construct by social and cultural theorists in their study of the myths of Exploration and Discovery, and of Venice’s subsequent re-invention as the City of Dreams and a tourist destination.

It is difficult to ignore the implicit references to more contemporary forms of ‘imperialism’ occurring in present day contexts when examining the artist’s larger body of work. Earlier works have addressed new forms of urban migration and the expanding empires of technology. The artist has challenged the notion of ‘freedoms’ pledged through increasingly ‘borderless’ interactions – preferring to view such freedoms as ‘fictions’ along with the myths of free speech and the free market in light of the corresponding growth of systems of surveillance and control.

One of a fistful of sound artists in Singapore, Zul considers ‘sound or utterance, a political act’ that can empower through its capacity to mobilize the imagination. With influences that span Indonesian folk-rock activist Iwan Falz (1961-) to UK theorist Michael Bull’s writings on aural culture in metropolitan cities, Zul’s works, like the other artists in the Singapore Pavilion, discloses evidence of borrowing and ‘quotations’ from diverse sources.

Zul’s 30-minute sonic composition emitting from a 4 metre dome, begins innocuously and acquires a hypnotic, seductive quality but amplifies and intensifies to a volume that thrusts the listener out of their comfort zone. Zul’s composition features recordings of sounds in Venice and Singapore. These include taped ambient sounds of vaporetto engines and canal-water lapping against jetty platforms, the strains of jazz music from a piazza and a dense archive of sounds taken at different times and locations in Singapore. The artist also taped ‘created’ sounds made from the electrical circuits of over 20 electronic toys retrieved from the Salvation Army and local stores in Singapore. The circuit boards of these toys (including a talking parrot and miniature keyboard set) were dis-assembled, re-wired and reconfigured to manufacture tones totally different from their original sounds.

The Sonic Dome bears the marks of Retro-Futuristic aesthetics, and carries motifs and symbols such as the ubiquitous quatrefoil design found in the façade of the neo-Gothic Palazzo.  It also features the Lion’s head, in its allusion to Singapore (‘Singa’: Lion) as the Lion City as well as to popular references to Venice as the Lion city.

Facade of Pallazo Franchetti, Singapore Pavillion