Sanna Soensteboe
What motivates you to use materials in this way?
I realised a while ago, that I was never really inspired by material at all. I could never choose a particular medium that could mediate the ideas and thoughts I had, instead, Idea became a kind of material in itself.
I am very interested in words, and the way that these particular words may change our experience of the world. Puns and double meanings create a kind of rift in the way we understand the world. These particular phrases are reliant on socially constructed associations that develop over time, and although the phrase ‘Tape Recording’ is not thought of as an obvious contender for that of puns or double meanings, it can be hinted at when the word is broken up. This is very fascination to me. It is obvious that I am recording the song (or time) in sellotape, therefore, it can be categorised as a tape recording, even though it technically has nothing to do with our previous associations with the word.
How do objects change your perspective?
The first objects ever made must have been tools that extended other human functions (eg. The knife used to cut a tree became an extension of the arm). Even in this weird semblance between performance and material, what the object really becomes, is a tool I can use to translate the action of pulling tape. It is an object of pure communication.
I use different everyday things a lot in my practice and for a while I was very consumed by the thought of letting them be themselves(and do what they were made to do). We only give importance and bring attention to objects that are similar to ourselves, and so we often forget about the things we are surrounded by when they are not in use.
In order to make people more aware of these objects, I try to engage myself in absurd activities that bring attention to the intent of the object. ‘Tape Recording’ works because I am using tape somewhat conventionally (though it is the object that gains attention, not the act of taping, which I realise is another association with the object). The ‘recorded’ tape also becomes a kind of personified sculpture of the music I heard, which may not relate much to the object I created, but it still relates a lot to the experience of it.
The words ‘Tape Recording’ are rooted in an age we are no longer a part of, thus the person looking at it will see a title that is outdated, and look at an action that is confusing.
One is left wondering if the depicted object is a reminder of the death of the tape recording or a reinvention of it.
What do you do with the pieces left behind from a performance?
That is something I always ask myself too. They seem to hold this status as an art object or an artefact, a kind of symbol of a lived experience, but when the curtains close and the performance is done they just become stuff.
In the song I tape recoded, The Beatles sings ‘all the lonely people, where do they all belong’ and my own interpretation seemed in this case to belong in the garbage can. Eleanor Rigby was thrown away. Others I have kept.