It Sounds Like Love
In the beginning was the seed, and the seed made sound, and if you were to listen carefully you might say that it sounds like love..
Description
The entire artwork is the floor. Visitors enter into an immersive experience with a focus towards the earth. Remove your shoes, enter the space, and walk on the artwork—the images in etched glass were produced by the sound vibrations of unsprouted seeds. Entering calls us to connect with our sense perceptions, feel, smell, listen, and be absorbed into direct experience.
“Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
-Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left Handed Commencement Address”
‘It Sounds Like Love’, art and science outreach has included: M.I.T, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvey Mudd College, Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Kenyon College, Ohio State University, Otterbein University, John Loghan Highschool, Hartford Middle school
Public art installation in the library of the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus, Ohio, Co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts.
The exhibition’s materiality of glass panels nestled among traditional Japanese mats made of rice straw and soft rush grass (tatami) interweaves an auto-biography. Born and raised in Japan for seventeen years, here I also trace my maternal lineage to Ohio, and my grandmother’s professional associations with glass art, to my family’s work with glass in the automobile industry, and to hot Ohio Summers spent on the waters of Lake Erie. Each unique, primordial form visible on the glass panels was originally captured by the Japanese art of “suminagashi”, or floating ink, which begins with 22 concentric circles of deep, black ink (sumi) floating on water and, here, moved by the sound vibration of the seeds.
It Sounds Like Love is a veritable act of reciprocity and a response to the damage we have done to mother earth. It is an offering that encourages us to listen deeply as we walk among the seeds’ messages that enshrine us, the intelligence of our more-than-human companions. If we linger long enough, these nine local seeds - Wild Bergamot, Big Blue Stem, Echinacea, Little Blue Stem, Dogbane, Switch Grass, Milkweed, and Black-eyed Susan - will teach us many things about ourselves.
Curator: Janice Glowski, The Frank Museum of Art
Panel discussion with Robin Wall Kimmerer on “The Grammar of Animacy”, Otterbein University 2022.
New research shows the patterns produced by the sound vibrations of nine native Ohio prairie seeds, in their dormant state, captured and etched into glass by the artist. Here, the visitor has a tangible experience of the sentience of seeds.
Courtesy from left to right and top to bottom: Dogbane, Milkweed, Black-eyed Suzan, Wild Bergamot, Echinacea, Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Switchgrass, Butterfly weed
From Art to Action
Watch the short videos below to explore how Cadine Navarro turns art into action with these community based interactive events that bring the art to life
Media
Watch these three short films created by directors inspired by “It Sounds Like Love
"Resonance," 2022, a short film by Sophie Ansel (director), based on and inspired by the "It Sounds Like Love" immersive installation by Cadine Navarro
Environmental Professionals Network Promo Video, Documentation By Bill Walker 2022. Literally starting with a seed, this experience allows visitors to enter into communication with the energetic frequencies of native Ohio prairie seeds. What results is an astonishing shift in perspective around our relationship to land and to self.
When The Art Is The Floor, 2022 By Bill Walker And Terry Hermsen, 2022. A film about Cadine Navarro's "It Sounds Like Love" exhibition
Support and Outreach
Support and Outreach for It Sounds Like Love has been immense, and includes but not limited to:
Scan QR to listen to the seeds and be guided by the artist
to meditate with them.
Community outreach and networking has been generously supported by the Ohio Land-based residency, and has included many invited guests such as The Ohio State’s Andean Music Ensembl, singer song-writer LeAnn Erikson, and unique Lakota blessing ceremonies held by chief Ramon (Tigre) Perez, community leader from Saltillo, Mexico, and Sundance friends.
The work was also featured in the Environmental Professionals Group (EPN); watch the video here
It Sounds Like Love en español
Middle school students have responded with poetry, and depicted in this film by Terry Hermsen and Bill Walker: Seeds of Poetry
It Sounds Like Love wearable art
