Courtney Brown

Artist Statement

Mirroring the intimate relationship between a musician and her instrument, my use of musical interface demands vulnerability on the part of the participant or performer. In my work, performers are subject to bodily limitations and breakdown. My installations require that participants touch the interface, sometimes with their mouths, and become performers, themselves, for a moment. I aim to create works in which the physical act of creating sound becomes a catalyst for changing, investigating, and adding to embodied experience and knowledge.

As part of an emphasis on the internal experience of music and movement, I often invite untrained participants to perform in some manner. My ambition is to expand access to experimental forms of sound, interaction, and music creation to those who may lack training or context. The hope is that more diverse voices create a richer, fuller discourse.

I am attracted to the fluid space of social dance, particularly Argentine tango, in which participants and performers easily exchange roles, and novices dance with and alongside professionals. Further, I am interested in how these dance communities negotiate connection, the feeling of being at one with one’s partner, the music, and the tango tradition and community. For me, the rhythm of dancing is inherently musical, and playing an instrument is a dance, and my work often blurs these two actions.