Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

The Murder of Crows, 2008

98-channel sound installation, speakers and stands, computer and program, gramophone horn speaker, table, 55 chairs, 30 min
Overall dimensions variable
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary for the Sydney Biennale 2008


The Murder of Crows is Janet Cardiff’s and George Bures Miller’s largest installation to date. The astounding, 30-minute long, 98-speaker artwork envelops its viewer/listener, continuing the artists’ explorations into the experience of the sculptural and physical qualities of sound. Constantly shifting between fact and fiction, Cardiff and Bures Miller create poetic, ambiguous and fractured narratives that investigate desire, intimacy, love, loss and memory. In their works, the artists refer to the world of film, theatre and spectacle, whilst examining the ways in which technology affects our consciousness.

The large and cavernous space is filled with speakers mounted on stands, chairs and walls, creating a minimalist flocking of speakers. The installation is structured similarly to a play or film, yet its images are created solely by voice, music and sound effects. Inspired by Goya´s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from the series of etchings, Caprichos (c.1799), the artists placed a lone megaphone horn on a table in the middle of the space. Cardiff´s voice sounds from this horn, reciting dreams and thoughts as if, like Goya´s sleeper, she is absorbed in her own nightmares. Using multiple soundscapes, as well as compositions by Freida Abtan, Tilman Ritter and Alexander Alexandrov, the artists create a “sound play”, which physically envelops the listener in a dynamic field of sound and music. Morphing in a dreamlike manner from war marches to lullabies, the work is a requiem to today´s conflict ridden world.
 

PAST EXHIBITIONS 

Solo exhibition: The Murder of Crows. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Venue: Matadero Madrid
Curator: Soledad Gutiérrez
Date: February 17,  2022 - July 24, 2022
 

Solo exhibition: The Murder of Crows. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Venue: Vandalorum Centrum för Konst och Design, Värnamo, Sweden
Date: March 9, 2013 - June 2, 2013

Solo exhibition: The Murder of Crows. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Date: February 17, 2012 - May 20, 2012

Solo exhibition: The Murder of Crows. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller.

Presented in association with: Mostly Mozart Festival

Venue: Park Avenue Armory, New York, USA

Date: August 3, 2012 - September 9, 2012

Solo exhibition: The Murder of Crows. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Venue: Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Date: March 14, 2009 - May 17, 2009

Group exhibition: 16th Biennale of Sydney , Sydney, Australia

Curator: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Date: June 18, 2008 - September 7, 2008

Commissioned by: TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary