“People who are speakers might not want to be bodies, Speakers who are speakers might not want to be speakers.”
- Hanne Lippard

For Artefact 2020 Hanne Lippard created I missed your call more than I missed you, a sound installation which deals with the idea of the disembodiment in texting, dating, ‘sexting’ and faceless communication. The speakers act as a body for the otherwise anonymous speaker. The text itself reflects on the duality of the word ‘Speaker’, a word given to both a human body as well as a digital device. The opening line of the text -This message has no body text - refers to the terminology used in an email and the fact that there is no actual person present, only the voice.

The installation can be understood to reflect on how devices and their sounds can replace human identities even at a comforting level. The flipside of this - humans imitating machines - is equally a subject that emerges throughout Lippard’s practice: By somehow appropriating the identity of a bot, we are hiding behind its anonymity.

Courtesy the artist and LambdaLambdaLambda Gallery
2020 - Mixed media installation
Artefact commission

Image credit: Hanne Lippard © Joanna Szproch

Hanne Lippard
°1984, Norway

Hanne Lippard’s practice explores the voice as a medium. Her education in graphic design informs how language can be visually powerful; her texts are visual, rhythmic, and performative rather than purely informative, and her work is conveyed through a variety of disciplines, which include short films, sound pieces, installations and performance. Her most recent performances and exhibitions include Parades for FIAC, Palais de la Découverte (2019), Art Night London (2019) Goethe in the Skyways, Minneapolis, (2019), and n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, (2019). Hanne Lippard lives and works in Berlin.