KUNSTRADIO

16. 2. 1992

The artist Hank Bull, much like some of his colleagues, perceives in radio art an opportunity to make a joke of the claim to exclusiveness which is so often attributed to art. "That kind of art, for which people pay so much, is worthless. It will not retain its value..." As a result of his views of radio art, Bull drops the boundaries between him as the artist and the audience, has people make their own pieces and integrates his work into them.

This principle can also been seen in "DRAVIDIA": Bull, who appeared at the "Audio Scene 80" festival in Vienna, collected sound material during a trip to India in 1981 and has used these sounds in this work. Bull traveled in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala regions in south India and listened to and observed the people there speaking, singing, dancing, playing music, celebrating and playing.

15 sound pictures and scenes were developed based on these materials and acoustic impressions, which Bull had never made public before.

The texts and songs are in the languages spoken in this area of south India, the languages of the Dravidia: Tamil, Telegu, Malayam and Kannada. According to linguistic researchers, the Tamil language is the oldest language in the world.

The material includes traditional songs and celebration music in honor of various gods, instrumental music from the region, sounds from an Indian film studio, the acoustic-musical background of shadow and puppet plays which are presented among family and friends in the villages and cities of southern India.

Mixed into the acoustics of traditional life there are also "modern" sounds in some of the pieces: the train between Madras and Thanjavur, the bus to Beypore. The celebration music in honor of the god Venkateshwaran is combined with noises from the street, and the honking of car horns can be heard around the temple in Madras, not only the "Nadaswarum", a long, double horn.

"DRAVIDIA" - Sounds of South India was commissioned by ORF - KUNSTRADIO.

1992 CALENDAR 1