Composer, sound artist and musician Vivian Wang explores intermediate spaces, developing transdisciplinary works across a range of sonic intersections in art, culture and space. She has performed as a noise and improv musician for over a decade. Her main instruments are synth, voice, electronics, field recording and prepared objects. Vivian has toured and performed extensively.
She is a founding member of experimental rock group The Observatory and an active member from 2001 to 2019. Wang’s development in immersive sound began with a 4-channel composition for House of Sentiments (2018) at the Bern Kunstmuseum in collaboration with the U5 art collective. This evolved with Priests & Programmers (2019), a multichannel installation commissioned for the inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Recently at Ekko festival in Norway, Wang presented Alt Human (2021), a new octophonic work exploring nonlingual voiced sounds and breath. Wang is active in performance, sound research and continues to compose for film, theatre and new media.
Her most recent artworks include two commissions for M+ Museum in Hong Kong for a new exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals.
Drawn to Light (2024) employs light and motion sensors to express the journey of light to evoke a meditative space in dialogue with the metal sculptures of Isamu Noguchi. Intimations of Shanshui (2024) is Vivian’s first interactive textile sculpture that is a nod to the Chinese art tradition of Shanshui. Visitors are invited to activate and influence sound, light and movement of the mountain sculpture as they circumnavigate the artwork.
She is a founding member of experimental rock group The Observatory and an active member from 2001 to 2019. Wang’s development in immersive sound began with a 4-channel composition for House of Sentiments (2018) at the Bern Kunstmuseum in collaboration with the U5 art collective. This evolved with Priests & Programmers (2019), a multichannel installation commissioned for the inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Recently at Ekko festival in Norway, Wang presented Alt Human (2021), a new octophonic work exploring nonlingual voiced sounds and breath. Wang is active in performance, sound research and continues to compose for film, theatre and new media.
Her most recent artworks include two commissions for M+ Museum in Hong Kong for a new exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals.
Drawn to Light (2024) employs light and motion sensors to express the journey of light to evoke a meditative space in dialogue with the metal sculptures of Isamu Noguchi. Intimations of Shanshui (2024) is Vivian’s first interactive textile sculpture that is a nod to the Chinese art tradition of Shanshui. Visitors are invited to activate and influence sound, light and movement of the mountain sculpture as they circumnavigate the artwork.
Vivian appears on US label Utech Records as ARCN TEMPL and on Sacred Bones and 4AD with Jenny Hval. Her solo album Schichtarbeiten (2019) combines found sounds and sonic fragments of her Southeast Asian upbringing to create musical portraits accompanying a series of abandoned spaces by photographer Philipp Aldrup.
Wang is heavily inspired by Balinese gamelan and Southeast Asian microtonal systems, as well as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
vivianwang.bandcamp.com