Jónsi works as both musician and artist across disciplines, and is perhaps best known for his soaring and mesmerizing compositions as the frontman of the band Sigur Rós. As a visual artist, Jónsi often begins with sound experiments, where he and his team create immersive installations that form a symbiosis of sound, light, scent, and touch.
In VOX, audiences encounter a sound and light installation that visualizes the human voice. The voice is a universal and unifying instrument that predates speech and language and has existed throughout history as an element in both celebrations and mourning. VOX translates the sound of Jónsi's voice into frequencies of light that play across four LED screens surrounding the audience. Sound and light move together in harmony, each responding to the other.
Every sound in VOX is created from the artist's natural voice, mixed with computer-modified and AI-generated voices that are further processed and distorted. This blending creates new and otherworldly sounds in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish the natural voice from artificially produced sounds. At the same time, the human voice connects us to our roots on an inner, spiritual level, a connection that is enhanced by the scent of vetiver grass roots and other root-based essential oils.
Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (b. 1975 in Iceland) lives and works in Los Angeles. Over the past twenty years, he has built a solid artistic practice that moves across disciplines through extensive collaboration with musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers. He first gained international attention as the vocalist of the experimental Icelandic band, Sigur Rós, and has since had creative collaborations with artists including Doug Aitken, Cameron Crowe, Merce Cunningham, Olafur Eliasson, and Carl Michael von Hausswolf, resulting in prestigious awards and critical acclaim. Jónsi has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
VOX was first produced for exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Los Angeles in 2023, and now receives its European premiere at Kunstsilo.
Credits
Jónsi Vox 2023 8 - channel sound installation, speakers, LED screens, scent (Vetiver root, galbanum, angelica root, iris root/ orris, cis-3-hexenol) Dimensions variable Duration: 25 minutes Edition of 3, 1AP Photo by Jeff McLane Video by Walker Sayan (Tin Dragon Media) (TBG 25045)