This small sound installation, which almost fits on a tea tray, invites the listener / viewer to lean in to hear the faint ghosts inhabiting the teacups. The cups speak and sing with their own voices, hinting at their tempestuous lives and their fears of a violent death. The tray trembles from time to time, a portent or memory of disaster.

Ghost Cup features poetry specially composed for this installation by Elise Ficarra and Val Whittington. 

Ghost Cup appeared in the Reembodied Sound Symposium at Columbia University, New York, organised by Matt Goodheart, April 2017. 

It was also recently featured at the 1078 Gallery in Chico California, Jan/Feb 2018, as part of a joint exhibition entitled Broken Open: Sound / Word / Object, with collaborators Elise Ficarra (poet) and Cameron Crawford (ceramicist). 

                                          

Listening ….

 

Other pieces in the Broken Open show were TEAPOet, Falling, and Piano Bench Variations. 

Piano Bench Variations:

Wood, metal, china, audio pipe speaker, amplifier, wires, sound interface, video projector, computer running Max MSP and Isadora. Video hands and piano sounds performed by Evelyn Ficarra.  

TEAPOeT:

Found objects (wood, fabric, china) amplifier, wires, sound interface, audio speaker, computer running Max MSP. Ceramic teapot by Anne Ficarra, recorded poetry written and performed by Elise Ficarra.

Falling:

Copper wire, china, metal, wood, glass, transducer, sound interface, computer running Max MSP.