Image Analysis (Opinion): B, Konrad Smoleński


B, Konrad Smoleński, Vehicles and Sound, 2014
          B is a Public Art Sound piece by Polish artist Konrad Smoleński, whereby a number of cars - all BMWs - are parked up anonymously in a city and left running with their doors locked and drone music playing inside. The cars act as amplifiers and the music can be heard from outside of the car. Smoleński’s website states that “No information about the installation or its location is communicated to the public/audience”. B has been exhibited twice: once in Gdańsk in 2014 and then in Sharjah in 2016. Smoleński works across the Sound, Performance and Video Art disciplines.

          I don’t think that leaving anonymous cars lying around with their engines on playing loud and odd sounds was a good idea given the amount of unrest, paranoia and fear which is present in most societies across the globe currently. If I saw a car with no number plates on it parked up somewhere making loud and weird noises I’d be calling the bomb squad. This is clearly Smoleński’s intent though, to make viewers to feel anxious and carry that home with them. He wants to create an atmosphere of “endangerment”, deliberately inducing a negative response from his audience.

          Examining B after viewing Smoleński’s other works there is a definite progression. His art has a very masculine expression: his video Chunks features incredibly buff oiled men wearing balaclavas silently flexing over and over. Smoleński is a self-proclaimed anarchist and his work seems to exude a certain anger and repressed rage. He often references military assault weapons, for example he plays a specially designed string instrument that looks like a Tomahawk Missile. He has also been part of the Punk Music scene in Poland for a long time and makes “noise rock” within the band BNNT regularly performing from the top of a specially converted van in public spaces.



** During semester one of my Second Year of Contemporary Art Practice, we were set eight images to analyse in order to practice Art Writing. I will present the series backward. This is the final image, image eight. **

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