studio catherine griffiths | 03 other in(ter)ventions

Hit the Wall: Sound Tracks

In Sound Tracks, New Zealand typographer and graphic designer Catherine Griffiths explores vowel sounds for the ’Hit The Wall’ space in the gallery. Visitors in the foyer can look up to be confronted by a large AEIOU emerging out of a network of converging and overlapping white lines, tracking in unison against a jet black background.

Griffiths manipulates her drawing through digital and analogue distortion – printing, scanning and enlarging the image to produce reverberating letterforms.

Sound Tracks is the second installation in the artist’s AEIOU series. The first work – a typographic sound sculpture (AEIOU, 2009) – is a construction of five vowels in steel, stacked five metres high on the first-level terrace of Cubana Apartments in Wellington.

Catherine Griffiths (b. 1966) is a designer and typographer based in Auckland and Paris, widely recognised for applying her practice to distinctly different contexts and environments, from pocket-sized artist books to public sculpture in architecture and the landscape.

This ’Hit the Wall’ site has been produced by the creative team at DAC Group: leading New Zealand display, exhibition and interpretation specialists. DAC Group is a custom manufacturer of large format graphics for interior and exterior applications, and is a provider to major museums and exhibitors throughout New Zealand. Sound Tracks demonstrates DAC Group’s commitment to producing innovative and high quality photographic and inkjet digital imaging solutions.

— The Dowse Art Museum / October 2011

03 in(ter)ventions

TypeSHED11
an international typography symposium, Wellington, NZ

W in black
drawings in progress, 2017

A whakapapa, two lines of women, an installation drawing
All Lines Converge, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2016, NZ

Installation with mirror and line
transitionalfieldwork, an exhibition, 2016, NZ

only U know ...
collaboration, Lela Jacobs AW17 Auckland, and SS17 Paris collection, NZ + FR

Constructed/Projected
installation, Typojanchi 2015, 4th International Typography Biennale, Seoul, KR

The Alphabet
front page takeover of the Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper for 26 days, Fitchburg, USA

The Brexit Series
a word-play poster series in response to Brexit

Raising the Flag
contemplative, suggestive — design unravelled, NZ

The Tuwhare Poster Project
fund-raiser for the Hone Tuwhare Trust Writers Residency, NZ

memento :: motif
Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo Alzheimer, Valparaíso, Chile

The Phone Book
a maquette, for the Club de Conversation project

Club de Conversation at S/F with Dino Chai, Auckland, NZ

Club de Conversation: Keyhole Series and Dials
rug series, Dilana Workshop, NZ

Sound Tracks
installation, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ

The Jets
short film, Paris, France

Protest Vessel 1/2 PRICE
a collaboration with ceramic artist Raewyn Atkinson, NZ

typ gr ph c

Sound Tracks

2011

Installation commissioned by The Dowse Art Museum, New Zealand

Sound Tracks is a site specific wall work, based on the drawings made for AEIOU, 2009. The vowel sounds are tested through analogue and digital distortion. The five letterforms emerge out of a network of converging and overlapping white lines tracking in unison against a jet black background.

Shown below the installation photographs are drawing details from Sound Tracks, which if viewed or printed out at approximately 400%, represent the wall work as intended.

7200m x 3440mm, digital print