In Relocation, Yann Novak explores the multitude of emotional states experienced during and after the relocation of one’s life. Utilizing his unique technique of transforming a simple environmental recording into something emotional and visceral, Novak creates three installations, each using a different step of the moving process as a point of departure. In all three works, Novak alters the timbre of the recordings but not the length. By doing so he let the subtly changing character of the original recordings dictate how the pieces will unfold. The pieces are spared formal compositional interjection from the artist and allowed to exist in the limbo between documentation and composition.
Relocation.Immersion is derived from the sounds elements of the three installations in Yann Novak’s solo exhibition Relocation at Lawrimore Project in May 2009. In the original Relocation exhibition, Novak explored the multitude of emotional states experienced during and after the relocation of one’s life.
In Relocation.Immersion Novak continue this exploration into the relocation process a year after his physical relocation with the new insight that, though he have arrived at his destination, the relocation process is far from over. By utilizing the altered sounds of these previous works as points of departure, Relocation.Immersion retains some of the moods and themes of the original experience, but reconstructs them into a slowly evolving immersion. Textures, tones and faint melodies drift in and out of existence, never standing still, always in a state of exposure and disintegration. Through the development of this subtle, yet dynamic state, a melancholic mood arises from the simultaneous experiences of discovery and loss.