The Synthesizer

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Christine Ödlund
The Synthesizer
2018

About the Item

Christine Ödlund The Synthesizer, 2018 Plant pigment, tempera and mixed binder on paper 94,3 x 179,6 The Sound of Music and Plants In the early 70s, Dorothy Retallack, a student at Temple Buell College in Colorado, carried out a rather special experiment. She shut herself in a lab with several plants, intending to investigate their reactions to different sounds and music. Her experiment was based on an animistic notion, and a fairly romantic one at that. She divided the plants into three groups and proceeded to subject each group to a different kind of sound. The results were astonishing: The plants that were exposed to a single, continuous drone died, while those that were exposed to music by Beethoven or Louis Armstrong turned their leaves towards the loudspeakers, and exhibited obvious growth and signs of comfort. They seemed more or less indifferent towards country music. Her book The Sound of Music and Plants (1973) was based on this experiment. So far, her research has not been incorporated into the scientific canon, and this kind of multi-disciplinary, holistic research is still often dismissed as insignificant. But who knows? Perhaps, one day, Dorothy Retallack’s plant experiments will be seen in a different light. The more we learn, the more contexts, connections, similarities, and codes we can use to find striking correlations and awaken our sense of wonder and fascination. Vertigo, even. This applies equally to the world of science. These connections between music, the mechanisms of life, languages, writing, and the delight everything living seems to take from finding new channels for communication also serve as the foundation for Christine Ödlund’s art. This painting is made with colours taken immediately from plants. The scent of fertiliser in her studio, I’m told, comes from indigo, which is associated with shades of blue. Here, the substance has been highly concentrated, and if you don’t look closely, the surface will register as black. Stinging nettles are the source of the green colour. Wild nature, which is constitutionally and conceptually inimitable by any attempt at human artifice, has been organised into strict forms in Christine Ödlund’s works, just like 6th century Gregorian monks once tamed vibrant and breathlessly seductive pagan music by formalising it in terms of a symbolic language. Through the use of musical notation, they were able to sacralise and co-opt these unrestrained harmonies, at least visually, and put them to work as objects of deafening beauty, originated directly from God. The powerful triangle, which is a bright, sunny yellow on one side, and inscribed with a series of concentric triangles on the other, forms an encrypted series, which can only be decoded by the most astute and humble of alchemists: photosynthesis. A miracle of life that can be understood, but never replicated. The notes, the vibrations, the attractive forces that power these encounters and unions, and the awareness of all these things that are expressed or interpreted in the works of Christine Ödlund make the notion of human communication with plants seem not merely possible, but necessary.

Creator:
Christine Ödlund (1963, Swedish)
Creation Year:
2018
Dimensions:
Height: 37.13 in (94.3 cm)Width: 70.71 in (179.6 cm)
Medium:
Paper,Tempera,Pigment
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Stockholm, SE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU93913029543

The Synthesizer

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The Synthesizer

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Christine ÖdlundThe Synthesizer2018

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The Synthesizer
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