Artist James Webb yesterday marked the vernissage of ‘Sounding Out’, a group exhibition at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg, by briefly cutting the gallery’s electricity supply.
In an artwork entitled The World Will Listen, the gallery staff tripped the main switch of the Bag Factory building at a predetermined time Wednesday evening, killing the lights and all electrical current for a period of four minutes and thirty-three seconds.
The intervention instigated by Webb was neither announced nor apologised for, as per the artist’s intent.
The World Will Listen (2005) was created by Webb during a period of rolling blackouts in the Western Cape and has previously been staged unnoticed at another gallery’s exhibition opening. The duration is the key: it echoes the well-known composition 4‘33” by John Cage of silence, whereby a musical score instructs the performer not to play for the duration of the piece.
The World Will Listen shifted the dynamics of ‘Sounding Out’ opening night. Most of the audience congregated outside to continue their conversations, where the ambient sounds of the city became apparent. Others braved the darkness until the lights resumed, some finding alternative light sources from their cellphones, and a few took it as a cue to depart. Most of the audiovisual work had to be restarted afterwards but a couple of battery-powered pieces defied the electricity cut.
Unannounced interventions form part of Webb’s practice and often concern an interest in displacement.