Janet Cardiff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Janet Cardiff
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| Born | March 15, 1957 Brussels, Ontario, Canada
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| Education | Queen's University, University of Alberta |
| Known for | sound artist, installation artist |
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Notable work
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"Forty Part Motet", 2001 Paradise Institute, 2001, with George Bures Miller |
| Movement | Conceptual Art |
| Spouse(s) | George Bures Miller |
| Awards | National Gallery of Canada Millennium Prize; La Biennale di Venezia Special Award; the Benesse Prize; the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize |
| Years active | 1995–present |
Janet Cardiff, born on March 15, 1957, is a Canadian artist. She is famous for her amazing sound art and installations. Often, she works with her husband, George Bures Miller. Janet became well-known in 1995 for her unique 'audio walks'. Today, she lives and creates art in British Columbia, Canada.
Contents
Growing Up and Starting Art
Janet Cardiff was born in 1957 in Brussels, Ontario, Canada. She grew up on a farm outside a small village. She studied art at Queen's University and the University of Alberta. While studying, she met George Bures Miller, who became her husband and art partner.
Janet first trained in photography and printmaking. Her early works were large silkscreen prints. In 1983, she worked with George Bures Miller on a Super-8 film called The Guardian Angel. After this, Janet's art began to include stories, sound, and movement.
Janet's Solo Artworks
Janet Cardiff creates art that makes you really listen and think.
The Whispering Room
One of her first major sound works was The Whispering Room. This art piece was in a dark space. It had 16 small round speakers on stands. Each speaker played the voice of a different character. As visitors walked around, a film projector would turn on. It showed a slow-motion film, adding to the experience.
Famous Audio Walks
Some of Janet's most famous solo works are her audio walks. She created her first one in 1991. In these walks, you wear headphones and follow a recorded voice. The voice guides you through a real place, telling you a story or giving you instructions. It mixes what you hear with what you see around you.
In 1996, she made a special walk for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Other famous walks include Her Long Black Hair (2004) in Central Park, New York. Another was Words Drawn in Water (2005) for the Hirshhorn Museum.
Janet's audio walks have been shown in many big art exhibitions. One special project, The Missing Voice (Case Study B) (1999), is an audio tour in London. It starts at the Whitechapel Library and takes you through London's East End. The tour mixes a made-up story with descriptions of the real places you see.
Forty Part Motet
In her artwork Forty Part Motet (2001), Janet used 40 speakers. She put them in 8 groups. Each speaker played a recording of one person singing a part of a song called Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis. This allowed people to walk through the space and hear each individual voice. It's like walking inside the music!
This artwork is now in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Inhotim in Brumadinho, Brazil. It was even shown in a chapel at The Cloisters museum in New York, which made the sound experience even more amazing.
Real Time Video Walk
Real Time (1999) was Janet's very first video walk. It happened in the library of the Carnegie Museum of Art. To experience it, you put on headphones connected to a small video camera. Janet's voice tells you to watch the screen and follow what you see and hear for about 18 minutes. This artwork plays with the differences between what you see on the video and what is actually happening in the library around you.
Working with George Bures Miller
Janet Cardiff often works with her husband, George Bures Miller. They create amazing art installations together.
The Dark Pool
"The Dark Pool" was their first big art project together in 1995. It was a dimly lit room filled with everyday objects like cardboard and carpets. As visitors moved through the room, they would trigger sounds. These sounds included music, parts of conversations, and bits of stories. Janet and George consider this work very personal.
Paradise Institute
In 2001, Janet and George represented Canada at the 49th Venice Biennale, a big art show. They presented Paradise Institute. This was a small movie theater with 16 seats. Viewers watched a film, but they also felt like they were part of a mystery happening both on the screen and in the real audience.
Janet and George's joint works have been shown in many art galleries around the world. In 2012, they took part in Documenta in Germany. They created two installations there. One was an audio installation in a forest called Forest (for a thousand years…). The other was a video walk called Alter Bahnhof video walk, made specially for the event.
In 2013, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Vancouver Art Gallery held a special show. It was called Lost in the Memory Palace: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. This show looked at their work from the mid-1990s to 2013. More recently, they created Thought Experiments in F♯ Minor (2019). This was an immersive video installation at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Awards for Janet and George
Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have won many important awards for their art:
- National Gallery of Canada Millennium Prize (2001)
- La Biennale di Venezia Special Award (2001) - This was the first time Canadian artists received this award!
- The Benesse Prize (2001) - This award celebrates artists who create new and experimental art.
- The Käthe Kollwitz Prize, Germany (2011)
- The Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize (2020) - This award honors their life's work, which has "opened up new perspectives for sculpture."
See also
- Rideau Street Chapel
