Flying to the future with a Diné ‘sound artist’
SUBMITTED Here, a glimpse of Report, a multi-channel audio/video public space performance composed by Raven Chacon in 2011, is presented in a still photograph.
ALBUQUERQUE
SUBMITTED
Here, a glimpse of Report, a multi-channel audio/video public space performance composed by Raven Chacon in 2011, is presented in a still photograph.
In an exhibit space on the UNM campus, the slightly offset voice of a Diné speaker retells the Navajo Emergence story.
At a local shooting range, gunshots ring out loud and rhythmically.
On a corner of the university campus, a solitary drum beat pounds, signaling another in the next block, and then another until the notes wrap around the university neighborhood.
These sounds, created into musical arrangements and public performances, then re-staged into artistic multi-layered installations, give just a small glimpse into the intricate works of Raven Chacon, Dine’, composer and “sound artist.”
Chacon, who grew up in Chinle, lives and works in Albuquerque.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in music composition from the California Institute of Arts.
“A classical music education gave me respect for instruments like the violin, clarinet and bassoon,” he said.
It’s his musical background, which began when he was a young child, that makes him stand out from other experimental artists who use audio to enhance their work.
Chacon’s arrangements begin with musical compositions that he envisions and writes.
From there, they build into dramatic presentations that involve still images and videos amplified by electronic noise, ambient sounds from nature and family gatherings.
“They include my grandpa’s singing. It’s all in there,” he explained.
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