What is listening: is it an answer or a question?
More than a simple neon light sculpture, Listen! is a visual manifesto, an explicit invitation to stop and tune into the surrounding space.
The work derives from a series of hand drawings made in 2012 with the intention of synthesizing the core of sound art research into a single image, a sort of statement of my artistic practice, focused on listening as an opening to a new way of perceiving the world around us.
An ear, whose shape traces a question mark, ignites within the space as a visual warning: an invitation to pay attention, but also a provocation regarding the very identity of the listener. At the same time, the work’s title Listen! is in the imperative form, encouraging the viewer to engage in a search for meaning after reflecting on the question posed by the work.
Suspended between urban signage, graphic icon and philosophical reflection, Listen! transforms the anatomy of listening into a luminous enigma. The work inverts the semantic nature of neon to pose a suspended question that investigates perception, interrogates the space and those present, slipping into a profound doubt: do we truly listen?