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My name is Zarouhie Abdalian,
and we're speaking at my studio in Oakland.
So for the SECA commission, I'm planning
a sound installation in downtown Oakland,
that's consisting of five bells placed on rooftops
near the intersection of 14th and Broadway.
And the bells will ring once daily,
for the period of the installation.
The primary audience for the work
are people who are already at the site.
One of the great things about sound is that
it is social and you experience it in space,
and a lot of times you can't get away from it.
If you hear bells, you have to walk a mile or two
not to hear them.
[ bells ringing ]
I actually thought of this, the project, before
proposing it, just in more general terms of
thinking about bells activating various spaces
within a city. But it seemed to really make sense
near Frank Ogawa Plaza, because
the architecture of that space already,
you know, says it's a city center or a place
for communing or people coming together.
So I moved to Oakland in 2010,
and I was working on a project at that same time,
while I was moving, in downtown Oakland.
And at that time, I was impressed
by how quiet things were after five
or on a weekend. But the little bit of activity
there was at that time was
people coming together to show support for
the Grant family, right ahead of
the Mehserle verdict, which was due out
any— any day. So I saw, you know, right then
you know, the first introduction as—
as a place for a gathering and activism.
And then, you know, had various relationships
with— with the site over time.
But was particularly inspired during
the Occupy movement, to see that site used
for a place of gathering of, like a very broad
community. You know, coming together for meals
or meetings and things like that.
My experience of the site
is very specific to that; although I think the
project is broader. The title of the work is
Occasional Music. And I think there are various
reads of that. You know, the work
happens on occasion. So it happens once a day
at these randomly determined times.
So you could think of that
as the occasional aspect.
But there's, you know, this history of
occasional music. Occasional music, you know,
to— to designate some kind of state event or,
you know, a coronation or something
along those lines. And this work of course
is the exact opposite of that.
So in that sense, the title is a little
tongue-in-cheek. With this work there's—
[ bell ringing ] there's no visual element, either.
And that it is just the sound—
the sound in downtown Oakland.
But what I'm counting on is the,
you know, viewer listening to the—
the signal of the bell in this very specific—
and interpreting it there,
in the history of downtown Oakland, at that site.
An artwork's not activism, I don't think.
But I do think pieces can propose
ways of using space or relating to others in space
that can be remembered in real situations;
real life, rather than the art life.