Cicada shells, Maple snag, soil, sand, audio

Thousands of cicada shells, hung on maple tree snag buried in soil dug up from a construction site. The title of the piece, refers to the Chinese Calender date of 惊蛰(Jīngzhé), a day where hibernating insects awakes, by the signals of thunderstorms. 17 years cicadas, in specific, emerges only once 17 years in mass quantities, to mate. Its cycle syncs with the adolescence period in humans, the time specific appearance and the mating calls that lasts all summer, remind of the nostalgic summers teenagers experience and share, consisting of blasting music and making noises in the fields. Traditionally a  Chinese medicine, the cicada shells can be digested in a powder form to help with the "internal" heat that people experience in the summer period. Once metamorphosed, the insects leave behind this old form that carried them for most of their lifetime, which now bear its form but without its life, similarly as the maple snag, they both become still materials and only its shape of reminisce.

From a distance, the cicada shells appear to be dying leaves, or even the branch itself from a greater distance. People only begin to notice its actual form - of what it is, when actually approaching it. The instinctive reaction of our brain when first processing the image immediately repels most people, as it is easy to mistake the shells for the actual insects themselves. Startled, much like how the insects were awakened from their long hibernation, the piece centered like a shrine, standing in peace as well as disturbances. Takes form as an irregular bonsai, concentrating time, life, land and nature itself.

Audio in collaboration with Hal H.Lewis:

https://soundcloud.com/eelsinbrine/cicadas-elongated

Soundscape sampled purely from cicada calling/sound, rearranged and processed the sound in multiple layers to create a large body soundscape, with a heavy bass to create vibrations amongst the delicate cicada sound. The speakers are placed in a half open space with sound reflective materials applied on wall and on each side of the installation to create an immersive soundscape. The underlying elements to the soundscape are inspired by the catchy pop rhythms and the repetitive disturbance rhythmic calls of the cicadas, to get the audio that ‘stuck in the head’ of the audiences who interact with the piece, similarly to the annoyance of the cicada sounds that accompany summers throughout in tropical areas around the world. The layered sound mimic the waves of cicadas syncing in the wild and the sudden disturbance too foreshadows the thunder season that awakes the cicadas during the 惊蛰(Jingzhé) season.

→ Reworked Installation shots at the Crypt Gallery