Noa Giniger
Noa Giniger works within a wide range of media, including installation, film, sound, text and online works. Giniger graduated from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris. As part of her studies, she attended the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University for one year. She was a resident at De Ateliers, Amsterdam and a Royal Dutch Institute Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Her work has been presented in various international solo and group exhibitions. Giniger is half of the spoken word poetry duo Noon & Ain with musician Anat Spiegel.Both Sides Now (on Shuffle), 2015
According to archeologists, the gesture of carving shapes and symbols into living trees has likely been practiced by civilizations throughout the world, though very few culturally modified trees dating back more than a few hundred years still remain. Yet, tree carvings are among the most fleeting artifacts of past cultures that exist. These botanical relics have limited lifespan; etched into living wood, their existence is typically limited to that of the tree. Their form changes slowly over time.1
Both Sides Now (on Shuffle) is composed of 11 titles engraved on barks or branches of different trees around I-Park. The titles are taken from the Joni Mitchell album “Both Sides Now”. The work is named after the 12th and last track, which is also the title of the album.
The album was released in 2000 and traces the arc of a modern romantic relationship: “A programmatic suite documenting a relationship from initial flirtation through optimistic consummation, metamorphosing into disillusionment, ironic despair, and finally resolving in the philosophical overview of acceptance and the probability of the cycle repeating itself”.2
Both Sides Now (on Shuffle) takes the associative gesture of a popular music technology and “shuffles” the titles of the album’s songs around the park, without precise indication of their locations or order.
1 Stephen Messenger. Archeologists Study the World’s Oldest Tree Carvings. Feb 10, 2011. http://www.treehugger.com/culture/archeologists-study-the-worlds-oldest-tree-carvings.html
2 Larry Klein. Liner notes of the album “Both Sides Now”. 2000.
For more information about Noa and her works, please visit her website at noa-giniger.tumblr.com.
