Our voices are as ancient as humanity itself and are carriers of language. Living languages are cognitive and oral forms that reflect the genera of humankind. The grain of our voice locates us socially, geographically and psychologically.

Jeremy Sharma is interested in how we hold musical pitches in memory, and how we relate the sounds of music and speech to each other. In Say Ocean, he harnesses the material quality of disembodied sounds and auditory illusions to create the effect of transforming speech into song. He collected recordings of 24 local dialects and languages not commonly spoken in Singapore by people of various age groups and backgrounds. Each participant recounted experiences growing up, their favourite food and colour, followed by memories of the sea. Sharma transforms the Esplanade Tunnel into an aural tapestry by weaving together a composition using these voice samples. This is done through the repetition of musical grammar like rhythm, tone, pitch, phonology and phonemes, and the use of time signatures and echoic memory.

Accompanying the multi-channel sound installation are 24 gestural ink drawings Sharma refers to as articulations. Vowels, the ocean, tongues and vocal chords are abstracted into shapes, letters and sounds.

Venue: Esplanade Tunnel

When: 18 Apr - 14 Jul 2019,

By: Esplanade