Liquid Architecture is a one of a number of international presenters working with artist Aki Onda as part of the 2022 Toronto Biennial. We are teaming up with Eastside Radio and Crawlspace Radio to broadcast Onda's radio transmission 'Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me' (2017/2021).
Monday 4 April, 22:00 AEST
Listening space on Eastside Radio 89.7 FM
Presented by Laura Altman and MP Hopkins
Sydney, Australia
Wednesday 1 June, 18:00 AEST
Crawl Space Radio, Composite
A collaboration between Samm Sutton and Lucy Dodd.
Melbourne, Australia
Paik is known for his association with shamanism, a practice that consistently surfaces in his works. With a portable radio in hand, Onda communicates with his spirit from a distance—collecting field recordings of cryptic broadcasts and messages on anonymous radio stations. The series of séances has been conducted in different cities across the globe, beginning in Seoul, Korea in 2010 and continuing in Cologne, Germany in 2012, Wrocław, Poland in 2013, and Lewisburg, United States in 2014. This work was originally commissioned by documenta 14’s radio program “Every Time A Ear di Soun” in 2017.
From March 26 to June 5, 2022, Aki Onda will present Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me, through microbroadcasting and printed matter at the Toronto Biennial of Art. Broadcasting over two frequencies (88.5 FM and 106.5 FM) that cover the exhibition site of 72 Perth Ave in Toronto, radios are placed as part of the exhibition to symbolize sound waves in the air. The audio work exists as invisible yet discrete and perceptible through the proper medium, recalling the ritual of channeling spirits.
Onda is also bringing Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me to the international radio waves in a series of international public programs. The program will play, uninterrupted and in its entirety of 50 minutes. For Onda, those broadcasts are a response to how Nam June Paik spread his ideas through TV cable networks and connected to a large number of people at a global scale.
For the full international broadcast schedule for Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me, visit Toronto Biennial.