It Sounds Like Love
In the beginning was the seed, and the seed made sound, and if you were to listen carefully you might say that it sounds like love..
Description
The entire artwork is the floor. This immersive installation takes as its protagonists the sound vibrations of 9 native Ohio prairie seeds in the dry, “dormant state. Yes, these tiny seeds, some no larger than the head of a pin, make sounds. And if you listen carefully….. It Sounds Like Love.
Guests are invited to remove their shoes, enter the space, and walk on the artwork—etched glass images produced by the sound vibrations of the unsprouted seeds, themselves. Entering calls us to connect with our sense perceptions, to feel, to smell, to listen, and to be absorbed into direct experience.
Public art installation at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus, Ohio, Co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts. Open to the public until April 30, 2023
The exhibition’s materiality of glass panels nestled among traditional Japanese mats made of rice straw and soft rush grass (tatami) interweaves an auto-biography. Born and raised in Japan for eighteen years, here I also trace my maternal lineage to Ohio, and my grandmother’s professional associations with glass art, to my family’s work with glass in the automobile industry, and to hot Ohio Summers spent on the waters of Lake Erie. Each unique, primordial form visible on the glass panels was originally captured by the Japanese art of suminagashi, or floating ink, which begins with 22 concentric circles of deep, black ink (sumi) floating on water and, here, moved by the sound vibration of the seeds.
It Sounds Like Love is a veritable act of reciprocity and a response to the damage we have done to mother earth. It is an offering that encourages us to listen deeply as we walk among the seeds’ messages that enshrine us, the intelligence of our more-than-human companions. If we linger long enough, these nine local seeds - Wild Bergamot, Big Blue Stem, Echinacea, Little Blue Stem, Dogbane, Switch Grass, Milkweed, and Black-eyed Susan - will teach us many things about ourselves.
Curator: Janice Glowski, The Frank Museum of Art
New research shows the patterns produced by the sound vibrations of nine native Ohio prairie seeds, in their dormant state, captured and etched into glass by the artist. Here, the visitor has a tangible experience of the sentience of seeds.
Courtesy from left to right and top to bottom: Dogbane, Milkweed, Black-eyed Suzan, Wild Bergamot, Echinacea, Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Switchgrass, Butterfly weed
From Art to Action
Watch the short videos below to explore how Cadine Navarro turns art into action with these community based interactive events that bring the art to life
Media
Watch these three short films created by directors inspired by “It Sounds Like Love
"Resonance," 2022, a short film by Sophie Ansel (director), inspired based on and inspired by the "It Sounds Like Love" immersive installation by Cadine Navarro
Environmental Professionals Network Promo Video, Documentation By Bill Walker 2022. Literally starting with a seed, this experience allows visitors to enter into communication with the energetic frequencies of native Ohio prairie seeds. What results is an astonishing shift in perspective around our relationship to land and to self.
When The Art Is The Floor, 2022 By Bill Walker And Terry Hermsen, 2022. A film about Cadine Navarro's "It Sounds Like Love" exhibition
Support and Outreach
Support and Outreach for It Sounds Like Love has been immense, and includes but not limited to:
Scan QR to listen to the seeds and be guided by the artist
to meditate with them.
Ohio Land-based residency
including the Rally at the Frank in August, 2022, Open Doors Festival in the summer of 2022:
https://www.ohiohistory.org/events/art-for-our-time-it-sounds-like-love/
Harvard Divinity School Eco-Spiritualities Conference
Summer programming at Otterbein: https://www.otterbein.edu/it-sounds-like-love-summer-programming-2022/
Community outreach and networking has included Kundalini Yoga and meditation events, haiku and myth-making, and original seed songs written and composed by Dr Terry Hermsen, concerts including Ohio State’s Andean Music Ensemble and special guest LeAnn Erikson offering vibrational soundscapes with crystal bowls, voice, flute and drum, and a unique Lakota blessing ceremonies held by chief Ramon (Tigre) Perez, community leader from Saltillo, Mexico, and Sundance friends.
Watch!
Resonance, film by Sophie Ansel
When the Art is the Floor (short version), film by Bill Walker and Terry Hermsen
Listening and Learning from Seeds, supported by the Minerva Action Group Clark Farm, Massachusetts
Environmental Professionals Group (EPN) watch video here
It Sounds Like Love en español
Seeds of Poetry, film by Terry Hermsen and Bill Walker
It Sounds Like Love wearable art available at Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus, Ohio
