Pearla Pigao

KUNSTROM JAKOB, STEINKJER KULTURHUS, 12. MARS – 16. MAI, 2026
Åpning: 12. mars, kl.18.00
Danseperformance vises tre ganger i løpet av utstillingsperioden:
19.03. kl.18:00 // 09.04. kl. 18:00 // 16.05. kl. 13:00
Kuratorer: Silje Hovland, Randi Martine Brockmann

Weaving Voices [2024]

Weaving Voices takes the human voice as its starting point—both as sonic material for weaving the textiles and as a central element in the composition, where the audience becomes an active co-creator.

The piece consists of eight parts, each based on a specific chord that sets the musical tone. The full cycle lasts approximately 40 minutes before it begins again. Harmonic variation is introduced by the audience, who can play the chords in different inversions, key centers, and tempos.

The installation also includes sculptures in which water plays a key role. Like the woven textiles, the surface of the water becomes a musical instrument activated by the viewer. Each sculpture is crafted from wood and shaped according to the same pattern principles used in the weaving process—translating the logic of the loom into sculptural form. For each section of the composition, the tones available in the sculptures shift according to the corresponding chord, enabling the audience to improvise throughout the piece. Each part incorporates varying degrees of randomness, determining how likely the system is to produce the prescribed tones in a specific order.

The composition was developed in collaboration with musician Sigurd Thomassen. Together, he and Pigao created a piece inspired by the structure of the loom, where musical notes are notated in the same way weaving bindings are traditionally written. Using various digital modules, they control both the number of available tones and the degree of randomness permitted. As a result, the music is never fully repetitive—each performance offers the possibility of unique, fleeting melodies.

The technical elements were developed in collaboration with electronics engineer Henrik Waarum.

For a long time, Pigao had wanted to explore the voice as a starting point in her work. Through this sound-based installation, she sought to investigate the voice as something deeply personal, but also as a transcendent medium—a tool for forming connections from one body to another. She finds the human voice endlessly fascinating: it is intimate and individual, with its own materiality and elasticity. It originates in our breath—the very essence of life—and through language and sound, it influences how we perceive and relate to the world around us. The voice is an instrument we all carry at all times; it can be comforting and unifying, or haunting and alienating.

Working with the voice emphasizes the bodily nature of Pigao’s practice. Her textile sound installations are inherently social and depend on human interaction to come fully alive. These are works that must be engaged with physically. The viewer must move close to the works to activate sound—ideally together with others—for the installation to reach its full potential. In some works, touch is encouraged: for example, dipping a hand into the water or gently pinching the textile surface. In this way, the audience becomes both listener and co-creator, shaping and experiencing the work simultaneously.

With Weaving Voices, Pigao aims to create situations that invite people to become aware of their own presence in space and time—to explore their relationship to the environment, and to both familiar and unfamiliar others with whom they share the moment. At the heart of this lies her artistic exploration of how sound can be materialised, shared, and sensed through the body. Her works exist at the intersection of the technological and the handcrafted, the digital and the tactile—inviting us to reflect on how we move through sound, and how sound moves through us.

As part of this exhibition, Pigao has created a performance in which dancers interpret and activate a composition in dialogue with the installations in the space. Using choreography as a driving force, the audience is offered a visual, performative, and musical experience that invites them to explore the many possibilities that arise in the interaction between artwork, sound, space, and the moving body.

Pigao’s practice is closely connected to physicality and movement. In earlier performance series, she has collaborated with dancers to develop choreographies that also function as musical compositions.