Searching for a signal

This exhibit was part of "3 Solo Projects: Audrey Chan, Elana Mann, Chan & Mann" at the Ben Maltz gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles

The exhibit investigated state sponsored listening, the politics of the voice, and sounds of war through video, photography, and sculpture. Over the course of a year, Mann visited historical spaces of listening in Southern California, from both WWI and the Cold War era, to explore the properties of sound at these sites. During this time, Edward Snowden revealed the massive surveilance programs on private citizens and foreign countries perpetrated by the US government. The resulting videos and photographs, created alone and with frequent collaborator, musician Juliana Snapper, reveal the history and contemporary reverberation of sound and war. Mann’s sculptures, inspired by pre-radar WWI listening devices, provocatively tune into the sonic arenas of the gallery space and beyond, probing the ways institutions gather and process sound. These artworks continue Mann’s inquiry into how active listening can unlock political histories.

Untitled (Listening Device I), 2013, metal, wood, fiberglass, hoses, earcups, 216" x 144" x 27"
Untitled (Listening Device III), 2013, metal, wood, plastic, 84" x 60" x 48"
Untitled (Listening Device II), 2013, metal, wood, fiberglass, hoses, 186" x 36" x 36"
A list of the sounds that have reverberated through my body, 2013, cut photographs on paper, 18" X 24"
Eternal Network News goes global, 2011-13, cut photographs on paper, 18" x 24"
production still, FM 1-4, 2013, 4 channel HD video installation, 4 min. trt
In a perfect world the moon will be visible, the dish would be set up for Moon Bounce, and she will bounce her voice off the moon, 2013, pigment on paper, 14" x 22"
Reflexive behavior, 2013, pigment on paper, 26" x 40"
Pilgrimage, 2013, pigment on paper, 26" x 40"