An American painter from Buffalo, New York, Charles Clough has had over 220 exhibitions in North America and Europe. His work is featured in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Clough’s work deals with metaphysical subjects: unity and connectedness, identity, freedom and the limits of nature and society, creation of thought and action, truth and the nature of belief, and nothingness.

An Englishman who moved to the US in the 1980s to study and pursue a career in art, Tim Bavington creates paintings and sculptures that have deep connections to music. His work uses color to represent specific notes from musical compositions, perhaps among his most well known being “Pipe Dream,” a piece commissioned for Symphony Park at the Smith Center for Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. Each pipe within the sculpture represents a note in Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

In addition to his work with the visual representation of music, Bavington has worked on comic books and the television show The Simpsons. His art has been collected by numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon.

Charles Clough

Tim Bavington

Exploring Anthropophony

Soundscapes

Charles Clough, Barbicon, 1993, Enamel on masonite. The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty Sates at the UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art. Photo: Checko Salgado for Focalchome.

Tim Bavington, Little Miss Lover (Study #4), 2010, Acrylic on paper. Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection. Photo: Mikayla Whitmore.

C U R A T E D B Y C H E L S E A A D A M S , E N G L I S H D O C T O R A L S T U D E N T

What is it?

Synesthesia is a condition where a person experiences one sense and simultaneously perceives it through a different sense. For example, a person may smell a scent when touching something, or see a word or number in a specific color every time they read it. The cause of synesthesia is currently unknown, although there is evidence that it may be connected to excess activity in the cerebral cortex.

Synesthesia

Considering Sound

Some people with synesthesia have misophonia: a hatred of sound. This is different than a simple dislike of certain sounds; specific noises trigger anger, disgust, and other, often uncontrollable negative emotions. It is extremely rare, but includes adverse feelings to sounds as simple as eating and breathing.

Soundscape: the acoustic components of the environment humans can perceive, creating an immersive acoustic experience.

Seated Drummer Figurine, Nayarit West Mexico, 100BCE - 300CE, Ceramic, UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection. Photo: Justin Locust.

Anthropophony

The term refers to all human-produced sounds, from music and speech to ambient noise generated by our technology.

Acoustic Environment

Included within the acoustic environment are all sounds—human, biological, and natural, or geophonic—in a specified area.

Soundmark

This term describes noises or sounds unique to a specific area, making them defining aspects of acoustic life in communities.

Soundscape Ecology

Soundscape ecology is the study of how the acoustic environment, biophonic, geophonic, and anthropophonic, affects the living things within it.

All of the ceramic instruments in this exhibition were created in West Mexico between 100 BCE and 300 CE. Some of them may have been found in the deep underground tombs where the elite members of different West Mexican cultures were buried. Used by successive generations, these tombs were records of entire family lineages.

There is evidence to suggest that flutes, whistles, and drums such as these were played during religious rituals and important ceremonial occasions throughout all of Mesoamerica. It was common for instruments to be shaped like animals, people, or other natural forms. These resemblances were possibly intended to imbue the instrument with the special qualities of the object it was imitating.

Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica stretched from Northern Mexico into Honduras. Over thousands of years the people of the region refined crop-based agriculture to the point where it could sustain the development of immense and complex civilizations.

With prosperity came population growth and an increase in labor specialization, religious rituals, architectural innovation, and trade between cities and cultures. The objects you see here are a small part of the region’s cultural accomplishments.

unlv.edu/barrickmuseum

Mesoamerican Instruments

About Mesoamerica

Flute, Colima West Mexico, 100BCE - 300CE, Ceramic, UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection.Photo: Justin Locust.

Soundscapes C U R A T E D B Y C H E L S E A A D A M S , E N G L I S H D O C T O R A L S T U D E N T

Whistle, CanineColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

FluteColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Eliwood vs. Koenig ‘study,’ 2015Shawn HummelAcrylic and Prismacolor on wood panelUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Barbicon, 1993Charles CloughEnamel on masoniteDorothy & Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States

Whistle, OwlColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

FluteColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Untitled, 1973Edward RenoufOil on board (Diptych)Dorothy & Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States

Whistle, OwlColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

FluteColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Breakfast in America, 2015Ash FerlitoVideo (5:17m)UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Little Miss Lover (Study #4), 2010Tim BavingtonAcrylic on paperUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Whistle, ZoomorphicColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Effigy DrumColima West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

The Ice Next Time - Land and Water Authority Winter Jacket, 2010Stephen HendeeFound clothing, jacketUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

TH1223, 2012Julie OppermannAcrylic on canvasUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection

Seated Drummer FigurineNayarit West Mexico100BCE - 300CECeramicUNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection