Aluminum Forest (2021)
Villa Aurelia, American Academy in Rome
Photography by Giorgio Benni, courtesy of American Academy in Rome
Steve Parker (2021 Fellow) is a sonic adventurer, an artist who works through trial and error, constantly trying the new and adjusting it to the moment. The three works he presents here are diverse in form but consistent in approach. Sanctus invites birds into “bird-sized ruins,” coaxing their song into a set of handmade, hybrid instruments; Human Stylus is a participatory procession of wearable devices, audi- ble only to those who control them; and Death Rattle is a sound installation that probes the deepest, most fragile music of the human body. Steve is harvesting sound—of a pipe against gravel, a failing breath, a bird scraping at a seed.
The results are unpredictable. As listeners, we must commit to close attention, bend our ears, and let go. In addition to confounding the musical roles of per- former and audience, Steve is recalibrating our most profound relationships. There is something wholly ordinary about the sounds he documents, even—or especially—those separating life from death. If the bird will not stop to sing, so be it. Steve invites us to sit and wait for the next one to come along. (American Academy in Rome Magazine, Spring 2021)
