Paul Walde presents For John Cage

This evening at the Art Gallery of Algoma, artist Paul Walde will celebrate the opening of For John Cage, an exhibit that explores the work of the American composer through a variety of audio and visual forms.

Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Walde currently resides in British Columbia where he sits as the chair of the visual arts department at the University of Victoria.

Prior to this, he taught at Western University in London where he also ran the three-day multi-disciplinary arts event, London Ontario Live Arts Festival.

He received an undergraduate degree from Western before moving to New York City to study for his masters degree at NYU.

Walde's work is heavily influenced by his time in Northern Ontario, he said, as well as his background as a musician.

It explores elements of nature, landscape, sound, and the human experience within these components.

"It was when I was living in New York that I realized that my experience growing up was different than other people from around the world. I was living in an area and going to school with people from all parts of the world," he explained. "I would talk to them about my experiences growing up in Northern Ontario. It was around that time I started coming back to Ontario to start dealing with some of that information (in the early 90s) which lead me to move back and all the work that I do."

Although he was a musician, Walde kept his two creative worlds separate, not really knowing how to marry the two until he started exploring to work of sound artists such as Alvin Lucier.

In the late 90s, he began experimenting with the medium and created Northern Symphony, a piece that directly relates to his time in Northern Ontario.

"I transcribed the markings that a beaver left in a log outside my studio and made a string quartet from that and installation to go with it," he said. "That lead me to really working with music and live performance in installations."

"I get a lot of information from the woods and try to figure out ways to relate some of that to cultural experiences."

Walde said he's pleased to be presenting For John Cage in his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie.

The exhibit opens tonight at with a reception at the Art Gallery of Algoma at 7 p.m. and will remain on display until December 6, 2015.

Artist Statement

FOR JOHN CAGE: Is an exhibition of works by Paul Walde at the Art Gallery of Algoma that explores various aspects of the work of the influential American composer John Cage (1912-1992).  

Cage is perhaps most well-known for his ground breaking work 4’33” a music composition with no notes.

A pioneer in the use of found objects as instruments, altering conventional instruments (the prepared piano), the use of pre-recorded sounds and noise in music composition and employing chance operations to the act of composing, Cage became incredibly influential to practitioners in many areas of the arts through his published writings such as SILENCE(1961) and his teaching at the New School in New York (1956 to 1961).

John Cage was also an expert mycologist and was active in re-establishing the New York Mycological Society which is still active to this day.

Walde’s interest in Cage dates back to a 1992 chance meeting of Cage the day he moved to New York and the convergence of his own interest in mycology, landscape and sound.

(PHOTO: Paul Walde's Composition for Solo Piano No.2. Supplied by the artist.)

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