5 Questions with Cindy Chen
Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen lives and works in Sydney on unceded Gai-mariagal and Gadigal lands. Her artistic practice examines how embodied listening and sounding can extend experimental drawing as a multi-sensory, emplaced process.
Through interactions with the sounds, surfaces, people and atmospheric contingencies of places, Chen develops listening, sounding and drawing as interconnected practices that engender connections and enact distinct senses of places.
NO.1
Tell us a little bit about how you came to make the music you do. What do you recall as your earliest musical influences and how has it evolved to what it is today?
I hesitate to call myself a musician as 12 years of formal musical training as a child has been (almost) entirely forgotten in the work I do today as an artist. However, my early training in modern and classical organ taught me to listen and this deeply informs the way that I work with my body within places and with the materiality of objects and surfaces. Most memorably, I greatly enjoyed the physical experience of playing Bach fugues. Although I couldn’t sit down and play these today, the co-ordination and bodily awareness required to navigate the interwoven melodies has been adapted into the ways that I gesture with microphones to create sounds.
Practitioners and theorists who have influenced me more recently include Pauline Oliveros and her methods of deep listening, sonic awareness and improvisational performances in resonant spaces; and also Akio Suzuki’s expanded sound practice incorporating installations and his method of “o to da te” where he listens and seeks “echo points” within the urban landscape.
NO.2
You’re also an accomplished visual artist, having exhibited at solo and group shows both in so-called Australia and abroad. Do you think the two processes—music and visual art—have informed each other in interesting ways? What common threads do you see (or not see)?
My sounding, listening and expanded drawing practices are deeply interconnected and linked through an inquiry into bodily engagement with the materiality and resonance of different sites. Sometimes the gestures used to create visible marks on paper will also generate sound that I bounce off surfaces and “catch” to create sound feedback. These recordings combine environmental sounds with the active sounds of touching surfaces and gesturing to create sonic feedback. The exhibited artworks that emerge from these projects are often multifaceted installations incorporating drawing, sculpture, sound installation and video, with each piece articulating specific and interconnected experiences.
Listening to sound and carefully considering the spatial and temporal fluidity of sonic experience led me to reimagine the ways that I draw. It took a couple of years for me to develop drawing methodologies and tools that were responsive to sonic movement and ephemerality. This was a huge shift in my practice.
NO.3
What are some themes you see recurring in your practice?
I am still struggling with questions of temporality and spatial fluidity in both my sound and drawing practices. These are themes that continue to inform, drive and evolve the works that I make. My work consistently addresses bodily interactions with places and how I am emplaced, which is a question that has emerged from grappling with being a migrant and finding ways of living and working respectfully on Aboriginal Country.
NO.4
If you’re working on something and it’s not going where you want it to, or if it’s starting to feel like a burden or a chore, how do you reckon with that? What happens next in this case?
I try to approach artwork development as a form of creative play, where I am constantly learning by trying things out in different ways. If something is not working how I thought it would, I try to see it as a puzzle rather than a problem. I figure out which parts need to be tweaked while allowing the material or medium to suggest solutions. Stepping back and allowing things to ferment or germinate in my subconsciousness can also be very helpful. However, I often find this challenging to do as I have a tendency to persist until I achieve what I want or I’m exhausted.
NO.5
Do you have any creative rituals or superstitions? What inspires you or pushes you forward in your practice?
I always introduce myself to the spirit of places that I am working in and make my intentions known, especially if it is a place that is removed from urban environments or is abundant in trees, rocks and wildlife. This can happen internally or spoken quietly and it can take some time for me to feel comfortable or received in a place.
I see every project or work that I make as a stepping stone in a path that is constantly evolving. This allows me to approach my practice as a never-ending journey of curiosity and learning. I also realise that there are comparatively few women artists of Chinese descent practicing art in Australia and that it is very important for our voices to continue to be registered and heard.
Essential Tremors is a new experimental music festival at Phoenix Central Park (Chippendale NSW). Curated by Angus Andrew from the band Liars, it will take place on March 11-13, structured with two sittings per evening—one is a double bill of two sets, and the other is a solo performance.
Cindy Chen will be playing on 11 Mar (7PM) with Del Lumanta in a double bill.
More info here.
Listen to an excerpt of Cindy’s track ‘Sounding Through Touch – After Rain’ below: