52 (Oceanic Feelings)
sculptural sound installation (2022) sand, canned fruit, beach umbrella, sea shell ashtray, message/phone number in a bottle. If dialing the number, the caller got directed to an answering machine playing an audio message of the artist imitating a whale.
Exhibited as a part of Rietveld UNCUT: Oceanic Imaginaries at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, NL 2022.
In the late 80s a signal on the unusual frequency of 52 hertz was detected in the Pacific Ocean by a research facility in Massachusetts. Commonly believed that this sound in fact comes from a whale singing on a different frequency than any other whale, it has kept marine biologists and scientists busy searching ever since. Frequently heard by its distant call, but never actually seen, this being’s inability to communicate with its peers implies that it has spent its entire life in complete solitude. They call her “The Loneliest Whale in the World”, or simply “52”.
