OVATION

Heather Kapplow & Liz Nofziger

OVATION

Description

“Ovation” allows an individual to have the sensation of entering Fenway Park solo, one by one, just as a player enters the field for a game. As he or she approaches the warm, glowing light of the Park, a motion sensor triggers the roar of a crowd using edited, open source clips from live concerts. These artists have captured the feeling of an ovation, and offer it to visitors as a “giant wave of love” and appreciation to enjoy for as long as he or she likes.

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HEATHER KAPPLOW
& LIZ NOFZIGER

Liz Nofziger and Heather Kapplow are both conceptual artists who work in a variety of mediums. Nofziger has an MFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Mass College of Art and has extensive experience making site-specific public installation art. Kapplow is a writer, artist and media producer who creates “engagement experiences” that elicit unexpected intimacies using performance, writing, audio and video. They have collaborated on occasional projects for 10 years.

www.heatherkapplow.com
www.nofzilla.com

COLLABORATORS

Ian King, a freelance lighting designer and technical director at the Fort Point Theatre Channel, has designed and programmed the sensor array and audio playback system for “Ovation" and Kevin Micka, Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew made invaluable contributions to the project as well.


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CURATOR'S STATEMENT

LEONIE BRADBURY

“Ovation” is an interactive sound installation by conceptual artists Heather Kapplow and Liz Nofziger. At Fenway Park, visitors approach the piece by walking down a ramp that leads towards the ball field. As you are descending the ramp, bright lights come into view in the distance and a gradual swell of applause becomes audible. The sound continues to grow as you near the entrance to the field. As you step out onto the field you are suddenly washed in an overwhelming sea of bright warm lights and surrounded by roaring applause and cheering. You are adored!

Many of us live lives where we will never have the chance to experience what entertainers, politicians and athletes have the opportunity to experience on a regular basis. Adoration. For Ovation, Kapplow and Nofziger aim to create that experience for the average person. The piece will feature recorded audience sounds from a series of Jo La Tango concert that take place the week leading up to Illuminus.

The idea came out of an experience Kapplow had while traveling with a musician friend on a tour where many nights ended with this kind of enthusiastic audience response. She realized that there is no equivalent experience for people who are not performers, but felt strongly that the warmth and pleasure of being very lovingly cheered for is something that everyone should have the opportunity to experience. Since then she has been excerpting and listening to the crowd cheering portions of live music albums and imagining ways to reproduce this in an immersive way in an art context without it coming across as jeering or ironic. Her collaborator Nofziger was invited to adapt the piece for an outdoor public space.

The placement at the iconic location of Fenway Park adds a new and exciting dimension to the piece. The fact that visitors are invited to actually step onto the field is already one that creates the experience of feeling “special.” Add to that the soundtrack of adoration and the bath of glowing warm lights and your personal ovation sensation is complete. According to the artists “Ovation” is like being awash in a giant wave of love. It wasn't love originally intended for you, but we have managed to capture it and are giving it to you as a gift.”

Details

Location:
Fenway Concourse
Credit Line:
Project sponsored by the HOUSE OF BLUES BOSTON Presented in partnership with the BOSTON RED SOX