CILDO MEIRELES’S BABEL

CILDO MEIRELES’S BABEL

Cildo Meireles’s Babel, which he refers to as the “tower of incomprehension”, is displayed in the Tate Modern museum. This work of art is a circular tower formed by stacking hundreds of radios, each tuned to a different station and at a minimum volume at which they are audible. The bottom is made of large old radios, while smaller newer ones congregate towards the top, making it appear taller. It is set up in a room with an indigo blue light. The installation relates to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. God was angered by people who wanted to build a tall tower to reach the heavens. He caused them to speak different languages, which caused confusion and division across the earth. Cildo Meireles’s Babel exemplifies how artists can transform themes into works of art from various contexts. When I first saw this work of art, I was captivated by its complexity and uniqueness. I had never imagined that artists could bring different radios together to create such a magnificent piece of art. I was amazed at how the sculpture could hold on its own being stacked with so many radios. It was also intriguing to imagine its construction process since Meireles had to acquire various radio pieces from different stages of technological advancement. Listening to the sounds of all those radios gave me a feeling of confusion since each of them was tuned to a different language. This must be why Meireles named it “The tower of incomprehension” since it is impossible to understand anything from all the overlapping sounds. The indigo blue light in the room adds to the feeling of perceptual confusion. From this experience, I imagined the creator’s intended message and thought about how complicated it is to comprehend anything in the middle of so many sounds. The work of art is displayed in its room with a blue-violet light. Since it is a large item, it makes sense to put it in an open space. Its lighting is perfect because it does not shift the viewer’s attention from the tower. It also welcomes one to view it up close to appreciate the different radio pieces brought together to create the structure. To see it clearly in its wholeness, one can observe it. The formal elements of this work of art have been combined to create its central theme, which is incomprehension. When one looks at it, the eye moves from its bottom to its top, seemingly continuous upwards. The tower incorporates perspective foreshortening created by the physical and visual weight of the large radios at the bottom. It appears taller because the upper radios seem to recede from the observer’s eye. Babel is a form of contemporary art that is conceptual art since it requires one to get an idea from the finished object. This art style entails assembling materials in whatever form is most appropriate to put their idea across.Meireles’s most important influence on Babel is Jorge Luis Borges’s Argentinian writer. Besides Babel, Meireles used Borge’s fiction in other works, such as Eureka. Meireles applies Borge’s style of using sound as a sculptural and perceptual element. The idea of the tower is borrowed from a symbol in Borge’s story “The library of Babel”. He describes the universe as a conceptually complete library with a centre that is everywhere and has no limits. The tower shows us how listening involves choice. As humans, we only occupy one position in space, from which several voices can be heard at one instance in time. What we hear is determined by our location with respect to the sound source. In Babel, one cannot hear all the voices and sounds at once. I viewed this as a metaphor that applies to everyday life. We can only listen to and understand one voice at a time. The tower seems to be addressing the matter of democracy’s paradox (Medium). The ability for everyone to have a voice means that none of them has adequate power. Since the global society goes beyond the borders of language, there is a lack of tools to relate to each other through comprehension. I also viewed the tower in relation to the current social media frenzy. In the increasingly saturated world of social media, it has become increasingly challenging to filter through the noise.I enjoyed studying this work of art because it shows how themes from other contexts can be used to create art. I was intrigued by the sophisticated thought process of its conception and creation. The hundreds of radios, each tuned to different languages, resonate with the tower of Babel in the Bible. The tower can be viewed as a representation of the current matters of the current issues of democracy, globalization and social media use.