Sonambulo II (Blue)

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle first gained international recognition for a diverse body of work––consisting of both studio-based objects and activist-inspired public art—that blended contemporary urban culture with poetic meditations on aesthetics, nature, and beauty. Sonambulo II (Blue) speaks precisely to the crucial intersection between his earlier street-based endeavors and his later, more gallery-bound practice. Importantly, it exists as both an individual work of sound art and a site-specific installation commissioned by the Art Institute.Consisting mainly of the soothing sounds of a summer thunder- and rainstorm, the audio portion mimics a New Age relaxation tape or therapeutic sleep aid. The origins of the work, however, are quite different: the audio was composed from the sound of a single gunshot that the artist sampled and digitally remastered using state-of-the-art computer editing equipment. The sound loop begins with the explosion of the gunshot, which is followed by eight seconds of tense silence. The gunshot sound is then repeated 385,000 times and seamlessly blended with the beginnings of the simulated thunder. The rainstorm effect follows, and the piece automatically repeats.The conceptual roots of the work can be found in Manglano-Ovalle’s biography. An insomniac, he decided to construct his own relaxation tape directly from the very street noises that were contributing to his sleeplessness. Placing a microphone outside his bedroom window on Chicago’s Northwest Side, he captured the sound of gunfire in a single night. In a poignant act of creative transformation, the artist constructed an escape based in reality, turning the potentially frightening sounds of violence into a soothing means of respite. Sound itself, however, is also a major focus of his thinking: “I don’t use sound in a linear, time-based way. To me sound is very much an extension of sculpture. It has physical form to me. It drives and also occupies space.”Sonambulo II (Blue) is much more than a personal lullaby: Manglano-Ovalle’s strikingly inventive manipulations contain a compelling social critique. The references to sleep introduce the metaphor of unconsciousness and consciousness. Extending these into the arena of pressing political issues such as gun violence, the work points to the basic differences between awareness and ignorance, social action and neglect. The piece masks the sounds of gunfire with the effect of a natural phenomenon; in doing so, it suggests the ways in which violence and fear too often become the ambient backdrop of contemporary urban life.In the Art Institute’s 1999 installation, shown here, viewers were invited to expe-rience the work’s artificial nature while contemplating the actual urban landscape, which was beautifully framed by a wall of tall glass windows in the museum’s Rice Loggia. Hermetically insulated from the exigencies of day-to-day street life, visitors were actually suspended above the cityscape. This artifice, further heightened by the blue tint of the windows, created the effect of imitation rain meeting imitation sky.