The Bird Tree

The project

At the end of the seventies I started to develop the technique of electromagnetic sound induction to create sound installations.
The idea is based on a series of electrical cable loops, which create a visible and acoustic structure. With the aid of especially designed headphones, built exclusively for this kind of work, the visual structure becomes audible for the listener when he moves around near the cables. Each loop corresponds to a different audio channel. The visitor mixes his own individual listening experience according to his individual way of moevements and listening.

The first concept for a sounding tree was conceived (but never realized) in 1981. It was exhibited as a drawing in the exhibition “Sonorità Prospettiche in Rimini, Italy in 1982.

The Bird Tree

A series of yellow green electrical cables are fixed to a long wall like a large graphic image. The cables have the form of branches and look like the top of a huge tree.
The sounds circulating in this cable tree are the songs of birds from all over the world. Some sounds may be a surprise, some may evoke personal reminiscences, some songs normally can never be heard because the birds are hidden (or do no more exist). The bird sounds were not treated or processed, but sometimes they seem more electronic than natural.

The first installation was realized in Bremen, Germany in 1987. The last version,exceptionally with black cable, was done 2023 in the Maxxi Museum Rome as a special new work related to the wonderful museum architecture of Zaha Hadid.

Realizations

Der Vogelbaum (The Bird Tree)

1987 “Terra Moriens”, Forum Böttcherstraße, Bremen

1996 “Christina Kubisch, Zwischenräume”, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Germany

1999 “El tiempo de la mirada”, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturanea, San Sebastian, Spain

2000 Christina Kubisch, “KlangLichtZeitRaum” , Opel Villen Rüsselsheim. Germany

2005 “B!as, International Sound Art”, Taipeh Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan

2007 “Mosaic City”, Museum of Daejon, Korea

2024 “Ambienti 1956 – 2010 _ Environments by Woman Artists” Museum Maxxi, Rome