Air Tonalities
Elise Ehry & Kitty Maria van Ekeren
(2011)
This selection of handmade instruments is part of the noise performance Air Tonalities by unemployed air hostesses Heather and Rosetta (alter ego’s of Elise Ehry & Kitty Maria van Ekeren). The handcrafted air based instruments, like flutes, ocarinas and horns are made from clay. These ceramic air-vessels don’t produce the same sounds as standardized instruments, since the sound chamber is intuitively sculpted from clay and randomly perforated with tone holes. They don’t carry the mechanics of a perfect tone ladder, and therefore the sounds of these instruments are a little off and intimate. They are in resistance to the standardized industrial-grade finish that has become a norm for the objects we surround ourselves with.These flutes are non-performers; opposing industrial criteria of functioning and not-functioning.