Through the audible instead of the visual Lislegaard investigates the possibilities of “experiencing words” on a physical level. “Corner Piece – the Space Between Us” (2000) reinforces this revelatory effect by using sound as the main source of information. An intermittently light corner nurtures the visual input, two flat surfaces confining the spectator, creating an environment of perception rather than an image. An architectural construction of a perfect corner is set up as the double of the real corner in the exhibition space. The corner, a minimal structure—that stands in awareness of all the corners we have come across in the past—is not a visual limit but a situation of being. The physical presence of the viewer completes the corner structure into a space—an imaginary third wall rises behind.
Sound flows into the solitary cavity of confinement from speakers installed in each of the four outer corners of the installation. Repeated layers of words and sentence structures, sometimes blurred and broken by silence, a non-linear story, an acoustic impression that forms images in the mind, enforces the connection to the voice. A description of a woman spoken by a female voice, depending on the speed and level of tones, is visually emulated by throbs of light from behind the construction. A Morse code of intimate and structured messages enwraps us with words that through whispers, reiterated, echoes, swivels and stops, constantly change the pulse of language. Gradually the speakers shift positions from I to you, to her, the spectator slowly intertwining his or her presence with the spoken words. These phrases of sounds and words trigger an array of images that are produced by the tension of the cognitive imagination and the confining reflective environment. The structures of words and sounds in “Corner Piece – the Space Between Us” are proliferated in their physical appearance through the careful installment of light and space, evoking a silent dialogue between the viewer and the installation. Spun together by sensitive tactile-like threads of visuals and acoustics, the viewer becomes entangled by a physical extension of the sound through his/her own reflections.
Barbara Clausen, “…her hand moves lightly over the surface of the wall…”, In Residence: Ann Lislegaard- slowly spinning, brochure, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway, 2001