Xindi Lyu-Looking Outwards 04

The performance of the art piece.

A sound art by Dutch artist Ronald van der mejis experimented with the mechanism of using the burning cigars as the control of the installation. The art piece-titled ‘play it one more time for me la ville fumée’- had its mechanism based on the way each of the different cigars has their own strengths due to the natural and traditional method they were made, while that leads to the different burning rate of each individual cigars. These fire rates eventually produced a very unnatural rhythm. This magnificent artwork is constructed with 4 tuners each in control of an instrument as a recorder containing the hand-rolled cigars. The pistons of the cigars and the recorders are both attached to two abstract airbags as “lungs”.

This art piece really inspired me with its astonishing way of material using and the smartness of using the cigars as a mechanism. The out-of-this-world idea of using cigars to generate a sound art installation really encouraged me to think beyond the conventions.