Ophan
Sound Installation with custom made hexacopter, control, power and sensing equipment, custom software, speaker, and lights
A physically restrained, customized hexacopter softly hums to itself when alone. When triggered by a visitor, Ophan takes off, stirring up a powerful gust of wind, and begins chanting from its glowing, eye-shaped speaker, in a droning, Middle Eastern cantorial intonation. It is reciting, piece by piece, all 28 verses of chapter 1 from the biblical book of Ezekiel, describing the physical forms of the angels. The drone is occasionally interrupted by live broadcasts of the official IDF radio station, that cause it to enter violent, quaking seizures of light and movement.
Ezekiel 1 is one of the main roots for a branch of Jewish Mysticism called “Merkabah mysticism”. This name refers to the esoteric tradition concerned with achieving visions of the chariot of god and it’s component angels, usually via a shamanic out-of-body experience. The installation is named after one of these angels in particular – the “Ophan” (a spoked wheel in hebrew). The Ophan as described by Ezekiel is essentially a mechanical being, a flying entity that is a wheel within a wheel, both of whose rims are covered with eyes. It is remotely driven by the spirit of an anthropomorphic angel, the Cherubim, that is “within it”.
Special thanks: Andy Trench: hexacopter skeleton assembly; Brian Dimmock: limb fabrication; Allan Visocheck: LED assembly and arduino programming; Cantor Dan Jacobi: Ezekiel vocals; Ehsan Ghoreishi: singing and additional vocals; Special thanks to Yoni Goldstein, Dr Sangyun Lee, Greg Bailey, Daniel Davidovsky, the Assor family and Caroline Stevens.
15' x 15' x 12'
