Urban Arts Space Summer Series #1
Artists: Jana Pryor and Ted Neüman
Voice:Röst
Digital Photograph
First
Inkjet print on tea bags sewn together
Resonance
Digital Photograph
Broken Wing
Digital Photograph
Glitch
Inkjet print on gampi paper
Freest
Digital Photograph
101
Digital Photograph
Anxiety
Inkjet print on wood blocks
Contemplation
Inkjet prints on tea bags
Sonorous
Digital Photograph
Translator
Digital Photograph
Meditation
Inkjet print on gampi paper
Floating (cloud)
Digital Photograph printed on organza
High/low
Inkjet print on tea bags sewn together
Resolve
Inkjet print on gampi paper
Mirror Image
Digital Photograph
Release
Digital photograph printed on organza
Suspense (on edge)
Digital Photographs on cardboard boxes
Let go
Digital Photograph printed on organza
Fracture
Digital Photograph
Internal universe
Inkjet prints on tea bags
Words
Digital Photograph
Breathe
Digital Photograph
Secret symbols
Digital Photograph
Heaviness
Digital Photograph
Inner clouds
Inkjet print on tea bags
Melded voice
Digital Photograph
Voice:Röst is a collaboration between Swedish musician Ted Neüman and Ohio photographer Jana Pryor. Their goal of this collaboration with combining music and photography is to enhance the emotional experience for the viewer/listener. Both artists are dealing with their own inner demons, whether it be depression, anxiety, fatigue and wish to bring attention to the life with an unbalanced mind.
They chose the title Voice:Röst, röst is Swedish for voice, to share their own each unique voice about their thoughts but without actually using words. For this collaboration, Ted and Jana created their own art based on each other’s work.
Musician Ted Neüman grew up in Eskilstuna, Sweden, and splits his time between Sweden and Budapest, Hungary. Since an early age, the guitar has been Ted’s main instrument, but for this exhibition, he turned to the computer and electronic instruments as the tool of creation. After starting the series, it became much more than a means of communication for Ted, it became a way of dealing with personal matters.
Patterns and rhythms have always played a major role in Ted Neüman’s music writing. He is attracted to the idea of finding the least common denominator and build and evolve the music around it. A shape or form that guides the rest of the creation process and works as a foundation for the song to fall back on/revisit (for recognition) after exploring other musical areas; being different styles, moods, time signatures, or keys.
The songs presented in this exhibition are a reaction to Jana Pryor’s artwork, striving to put a musical voice to the feelings and moods sensed in her photos and as an attempt to write/produce a unified/common soundtrack of the two artist’s minds.
Ohio native Jana Pryor creates self-portraits that depict something much more than just beautiful compositions. The photographer's goal is to make the viewer feel something without giving them a direct narrative. Jana’s photos try to confront the viewer with an outward representation of the inner self, the exterior as seen by the interior. The art for this show is about her inability to properly communicate what depression means for her. She chose non-traditional printing for some of her photographs such as using gampi paper and used tea bags because both papers are fragile but yet strong, sparking the questions of what it is like to be human.
A reoccurring theme she used, is creating an image, then breaking it apart, printing on strips or smaller components, and then placing them back together again to reform the image. Through the rebuilding, it is not as ‘perfect’ as the original image but showing the beauty in the imperfections.
Jana creates her pieces after listening to Ted’s emotionally charged music. Though the artists are two different people and using two completely different art forms, they are on the same wavelength, expressing the same emotion with their art.
The Urban Arts Space Summer Series showcases exhibitions and related discussions by artists, artist groups, community groups, and organizations living and working in the state of Ohio.