Sour Loop is a new collaborative work by artist Hanne Lippard and musician Laurel Halo, commissioned by Haus der Kunst for the Terrace Hall. It is part of the TUNE sound programme, a series of short sound residencies, which explore the intersections of sound, music and visual arts.
With Sour Loop, Lippard and Halo create an environment that reflects on music and sound in public spaces and how it can either create a soothing or uncomfortable environment, and either invite people to stay or make them leave.
Lippard’s voice resonates as occasional linguistic punctuations in the expanse of Halo’s spatial composition, suggesting a human presence in the Terrace Hall, an otherwise vacant passage. However, similar to the qualities of automated language which is often part of Lippard’s work, the question of what is defined as human is obscured, as the composition becomes part music, part voice.
The sound is as ungraspable as a mood; a vague and invisible but nevertheless tangible presence of emotions, both collective and individual, in a body, a room, or a state. Themood evolves through the inescapable effect of repetition.
Sour Loop is part of TUNE and will be launched as part of the live exhibition ECHOES on 30.1.24 with a talk by Hanne Lippard and Laurel Halo. The environment will be on view in the Terrassensaal of Haus der Kunst until 31.7.25.
Hanne Lippard’s (1984, Milton Keynes, UK) practice lies at the confluence of spoken and written word and her work is conveyed through a variety of disciplines, predominantly sound-installations and performance. She draws upon themes including questions of bodily and mental wellbeing, self-optimization, and living through the lens of social media. Lippard has performed and exhibited most recently at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart Berlin, Mudam Luxembourg, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, and FRAC Lorraine, and was awarded with the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2024.
Laurel Halo (1985, Detroit, USA) is a composer, producer and musician whose work melds the materiality and spirituality of sound. Drawing influence from Detroit techno, musique concrète, film score and jazz, she uses both organic and inorganic sound materials, an extensive studio-as-instrument practice, and a deep appreciation for harmony. She has presented work around the world at places including the Barbican Centre, Ina-GRM, the Sydney Opera House, Kölner Philharmonie, and the Julia Stoschek Foundation. She released her latest album Atlas (LP, 2023) on her own imprint, Awe, and Octavia (12”, 2024) on Éditions Grm.
Curated by Sarah Miles with Marlene Mützel.