MARCH 2007: Leon Speakers Brings Custom Integrated Audio to Robert Wilson’s VOOM HD Celebrity Portraits

Leon Speakers was contracted to design custom speakers for the touring VOOM PORTRAITS by ROBERT WILSON. The VOOM Portraits are a series of over 30 high-definition video portraits created by one of the most influential innovators in theater, art and design. This groundbreaking artistic venture was designed and commissioned by VOOM HD NETWORKS, a pioneering high-definition TV network with fifteen national channels and a growing global presence, to illustrate the aesthetic and technical brilliance of the evolving HD medium.*

Since 2004, Robert Wilson has been an Artist in Residence at VOOM, where he conceived the VOOM PORTRAITS to extend the tradition of formal art portraiture, through this 21st century technology. Each piece represents the collaboration between the artist and his subject, and the final concept is the resulting inspiration shared between the two. Wilson’s portrait celebrity subjects include Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Monaco’s Princess Caroline, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Jeanne Moreau, among others. In addition, the collection also includes captivating animal portraits, including a South American horned frog, a Briard dog, a snow owl, a black panther and a porcupine.

At first, the unique portraits seem to be traditional sittings. But then, unexpectedly, the subjects perform a simple act—a small movement, a blink, a tap of the foot—and the experience of watching them changes entirely. A background score enhances all of the artwork, and it was Leon Speakers who integrated the high-end, full-range, ultra-thin speakers below the displays.

“I immediately turned to Leon Speakers when it was decided to add sound to the art,” said Al Irizarry, who as Director of Production Services for Rainbow Media, Voom HD’s parent company, crafted the proprietary display system for the art pieces. Irizarry added, “They understood exactly what we needed and delighted us every step of the way. They built perfectly matched custom speakers, with over-the-top sound, but delivered cool, low, and perfectly directed audio that only the standing art viewer hears.” The speakers were custom built with little time before the premiere of the NY shows in January.

All of the installations from Leon included custom designed, hand-built, ultra-compact two-channel stereo speakers. Once mounted below the plasma screen, the speakers become part of the display and produce the high-fidelity sound needed for the continual looping vocals and music accompanying the artwork.

“We were honored to design speakers for this application,” said Noah Kaplan, president of Leon Speakers. “The concept connected perfectly with the origins of Leon Speakers, rooted in the fusion of high-definition audio with original artwork.” He continued, “Robert Wilson’s video portraits were so alive it seemed only natural to infuse high-fidelity audio to best portray the scores which accompanied each piece. We could not wait to see, hear and experience the end result.”

The exhibition of VOOM PORTRAITS by ROBERT WILSON opened in New York at the Phillips de Pury and Paula Cooper Galleries in January and is now showing in the Ace Gallery in Los Angeles through April 21. It then moves to Europe for a global tour that will bring the HD artworks to the world’s leading museums, galleries and public art spaces. The portraits, which shot in both vertical exhibition and horizontal television versions, will also be broadcast in Fall 2007 on VOOM HD’s visual-arts channel, GALLERY HD, along with a making-of documentary premiering on Art In Progress, a signature series of the channel.

“It is an amazing and dramatic new art form,” added Kaplan. “We will always treasure our traditional art forms, but all art evolves within the changing landscapes of technology—this collection is a peek at what lies ahead in modern and creative new art techniques.”