Motive #5 (Bowls and spoons)

Rotating bowls, and spoons, suspended on strings, rhythmically scrape.

This motive is made from Chinese ceramic tableware: bowls and spoons. The bowls had a hole drilled through their bottom, allowing them to be strung on a steel string like beads. Rotating the string causes the spoons to scrape along the rim of the bowl. As the string turns faster and faster, the bowls start to wobble, nudging the spoons. The spoons start to twist, turn, bounce on their own string. The interactions between bowls and spoons produces a rhythmic, constantly changing pattern of sound. As the motor speeds up, so does the sound pattern, until after some time the motor stops and the arrangement comes to rest.

Installation view of the motive in Motives/Motifs, solo show with 6 motives in Guangzhou, China.