Iga Janik (Peterborough, ON), Monotone, 2009, mixed media, variable dimensions, Kitchener City Hall. Photo: Iga Janik.

 

Monotone is a sound installation comprised of a series of FM radio transmitters, each equipped with its own microphone, broadcasting overlapping live sound of the surrounding environment. It is a sonic interpretation of the landscape of Kitchener City Hall, using extremely low range transmitters installed throughout City Hall, drawing our attention to the authentic and residing auditory spaces of the location without being specific to the actual sounds or their sources.

 

Iga Janik makes very small sculptures, large photographs, and off-site installations. Most of her work attempts to be ironic, surreal, subversive, provocative, and occasionally a little bit rude. She's interested in the blurry world of in-between-the-lines, never exactly fiction, but never quite real either. Whether it's about social perceptions, communal misunderstandings, or shared spaces, it's how we perceive our world and intuitively make judgments about it. She's shown her work in Canada as well as abroad, participating in artist-in-residence project in Berlin, and video festivals in Nantes, France.