Sound of Society

Touch is part of the artwork.

The work began with a feeling of being out of the box. Feeling different, not quite fitting into what is expected of us.

The white wooden box becomes a metaphor for society: a space we share, shaped by the people within it. Inside are metal balls and coloured glass balls. The coloured balls stand out among the metal ones, but they also leave traces of themselves behind. As light passes through them, their colours are reflected onto the surrounding metal balls, which is a reminder that what we carry within us can reach others, even when we do not see it happening.

The glass balls are red, yellow and blue, the primary colours, simple elements from which countless others can emerge. There are more than one of them. Being different does not mean being alone.

The Light.

The box stands on a large white pedestal with a light source beneath it. The light comes from below, from outside the box.

I think of it as a life force.

Something fundamental that is present in all of us, yet remains difficult to explain. The work does not attempt to give any specific explanations.

Instead, the light simply exists.

It enters the box from its root, passes through the transparent surfaces and the coloured glass balls, and becomes visible through what it touches. It illuminates the metal balls, carrying the colours of the glass balls onto them. Something that begins outside the objects becomes part of what we see inside.

Perhaps this is how our own inner light works too. Whatever we understand that light to be: soul, consciousness, spirit, energy, or simply the unexplained fact of being alive,  it does not stay contained within us. It affects the people and world around us. We leave traces, sometimes without ever knowing where they will travel.

The Sound.

And then there is the sound.

When the box is moved, the balls come together. The sound can be abrupt and unsettled, or stronger yet strangely calm and unified. It depends on the person holding the box , the person temporarily in control, deciding how everything within it moves.

In this way, the work becomes a small society.

We influence one another. We leave traces on one another. We respond to the movements of others, while sometimes being the ones who determine the movement.

The composition is never fixed, we are all part of it, and it wouldn't sound the same without you.

Martyna Jach