Finnegan Shannon

Rue des Commerçants 62 Sounds, 2021

Rue des Commerçants 62 Sounds

A close up of an installation of vinyl text on a dark window. The text is yellow and in handwritten in blocky, uneven capitals. A reflection of a person taking the photo with an iPhone is behind the text.
A glass storefront set in a concrete building. Flanking the glass doors are two windows filled with yellow vinyl text. Above the door it says “rile*” and “ARGOS” and through the glass, I see some bookshelves and boxes.

  • About:
    Based on observations during the week of February 15, 2021

    This site-specific intervention (collaboration with Sven Dehens and Chloe Chignell of rile*) aims to caption the ambient sound of the site where it is installed: the front window of rile* bookshop, facing Rue des Commerçants in the ARGOS building.

    Not knowing the site, I worked with Dehens and Chiggnell in collecting observations about what they hear while minding the bookshop. Together, we worked on conveying the sonic mood of the site, bouncing between descriptive writing and more subjective notes about the feelings certain sounds elicit.

    The intervention also relates to the feeling of the unusual time when it was created: right in the heart of the 2021 pandemic winter.

    This is the full text featured in the installation:

    • Slow rhythmical beeps, high pitched, seemingly endless (a truck reversing)

    • The low and thick whirr of a heater spreading warm air

    • Tyres rolling over cobblestones, faint rubber popping sounds — this happens regularly

    • Soft pump of a plastic bottle
      Slippery sticky sound, two hands rubbing
      A sniff
      “Mmm (mild surprise), doesn’t smell bad”

    • An aggressive horn, briefly blaring

    • From down the street: muffled laughter, or a kind of thick giggle

    • Squelch of footsteps, faint then louder then faint

    • Silence (heater turns off for a second)

    • Metallic click of door handle
      Tentative push

    • Light pop with a deep voice: “let it go, oh let it all go”

    • Quiet sweeping of old dust and dried grime

    • Squeaky sneakers

    • Keyboard clicking — this continues most of the day

    • Slam of the delivery truck’s door, heavy swing, thunk, ears perk up — thinking maybe something for us? — nothing

    • Another song plays: saxophone waning, shimmering high hats, woman's buttery voice “I like to love” … “but you make me feel lonely” … “build my collection”

    • Almost like thousands of dry leaves being spun around in a dustbin, a crackling woosh (cars passing without slowing)

    • Crowbar clinking, hammering metal to metal

    • Some soul/funk on the radio fading out

    • Two people flipping through books, murmuring, to each other

    Commissioned by Activating Captions.

  • Year: 2021

  • Materials: Vinyl text

  • Size: Dimensions variable

  • Curated by: Christine Sun Kim and Niels Van Tomme

  • Photos courtesy of Argos