“Sense of Hearing” I

Dadawa sound work No 1.2014, Today Museum, Beijing

Property: multi-media sound installation

Vocal improvise Lighting reflection

“Sense of Hearing” II

Dadawa sound work No 1.2014, Today Museum, Beijing

Property: multi-media sound installation

Vocal improvise Lighting reflection

“Sense of Hearing” III

Dadawa sound work No 1.2014, Today Museum, Beijing

Property: multi-media sound installation

Vocal improvise Lighting reflection

Mind and matter are not opposites

They are two dimensions of energy

They interact and mutually transform

Matter serves as a medium for mind

In the process of mind transforming to matter

It’s energy released by the other

Dispersal of energy stimulates further mental activity

Thus unfolds the ecology between mind and matter

“Sense of Hearing” 2014 Today Museum, Beijing

“Sense of Hearing”  space: 1000sq meter

Visitor live vocal improvise

“Sense of Hearing” is Dadawa’ s first sound art piece. This large-scale interactive sound installation is a multimedia fusion of hearing, seeing, optics, improvisation, performance art and field sampling.

It is a participatory work requiring ears and listening. In this piece, Dadawa realizes the transformation of roles between actors and the audience. In this debut work she creates an accessible framework of sound for the visitor.

Each person entering this sonic environment is not only the seer and the listener but also the creator. Discovering water and light as media, realizing visibility through the energy of sound waves, the artist uses the exhibition space to create for the audience and herself an energetic work of internal perception, which pays attention to both the spiritual and material, a meditative space where the abstract and representational interact and transform with each other.

Improvisation with Sound 1(8×4.5m)

Improvisation with Sound 2(8×4.5m)

Improvisation with Sound 3(8×4.5m)

Improvisation with Sound 4(8×4.5m)

Dadawa is one of the most important Chinese singers, crossover sound artist,  independent producer, and has served as a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador. Founder of KANJIAN Creation, she also recently established SOUND LAB at Shanghai’s Tongji University, Institute of Architecture and Design where she is an adjunct professor.

Over the past 20 years Dadawa, with music as her point of departure, has embarked on her journey into crossover artistic exploration, an advance guard pioneer of contemporary Chinese music, in recent years her works have entered the fields of Sound as well as visual art, design, performance and contemporary art .

Dadawa’s representative music and sound art works：“Sister Drum”(1995),“Moon Rise”(2010),“Sense of Hearing” (2014), “Fuchun Mountain Soundscape" (2016).  “Sound Script after Book from the Sky”2018 for Xu Bing UCCA Solo exhibition, “Bell Shelter” for Setouchi Triennial Japan in 2019.

Video, Image and Text Courtesy of the Artist.

Edited by Sue and Emily.