Blawnox artist hopes sculpture for Three Rivers Arts Festival gets people to hear the conversation

Inside a black tent at the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, you can hear jabbering.

The sound is somewhat muffled, but the talking heads seem to be screaming, talking over one another.

They are representative of how we think we are really listening to someone, but we have no idea what they are saying because we are trying to get our message across.

And, in turn, no one gets heard.

“We need to communicate better,” said Jimmy West, the artist who created the installation.

It’s called “Utterance.”

West, a sculptor, created 11 life-size heads, two made of resin and nine in bronze. Through the use of computer software in a studio, he recorded his voice screaming with the sound coming from the heads perched on a pole.

West describes it as a symbolic sculpture, which uses “illumination and volume control, about how we, as humans, need to quiet the noise around us and listen, really listen, to the messages that are being broadcast, and how we use our own voices to communicate.”

The piece is located in The Backyard, an outdoor area at Eighth and Penn avenues, Downtown.

It will be on display until June 11.

People can download a QRcode and record their answer to the question and upload it on an app: How can we communicate better?

Posts will be viewed to make sure people don’t use profanity or hate. The posts will be shown on a loop on a screen next to the installation throughout the 10-day festival.

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop | Tribune-Review

Artist Jimmy West of Blawnox pretends he is screaming at one of the talking heads in his sculpture, “Utterance,” on June 1 at The Backyard in Downtown Pittsburgh for the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.

West was making final adjustments to the piece on June 1. He said tone is very important when trying to get a message across.

“It is how I deliver a word, how we perceive each other and how we receive each other,” he said. “Too many times there is all this noise and no one is really listening.”

“Think about what you experience every day; there is simply too much noise and not enough listening,” he said. “‘Utterance’ reminds us that in order to listen to one another, really listen, we must first quiet the noise that surrounds us. Only then can we truly hear and be heard.”

West’s piece represents why art matters, said Sarah Aziz, Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival director.

“It will be a safe place for discussion, and the piece is really about getting people talking,” Aziz said. “I hope it sparks some thoughtful conversation and active listening.”

Marc Fleming chief marketing officer and vice-president of Broadway programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, said West’s piece looks at communication through a common experience.

“Art pieces like this one that are interactive draw people in, and they see different angles of a topic,” Fleming said. “This piece will create open conversation.”

An inspiration for the piece came from a conversation West had with his 5-year-old granddaughter, Lola. She was listening to the talking heads and said, “Pops, why can’t they just talk?”

“We need to be better listeners,” West said. “Art has done what it was intended to do when art makes people think and remember.”

West, who grew up in Fox Chapel, has a studio in Blawnox, which he calls Studio Wild West. He created it from a 50-foot-wide by 30-foot-wide barn, which he had dismantled in Washington, Washington County and reassembled. He has been creating art for more than three decades. One of his most recognizable local pieces sits atop Mt. Washington — the larger-than-life bronze sculptures called “Point of View” depicts the monumental meeting of George Washington and Seneca leader Guyasuta in 1770. He installed that in 2006.

West is self-taught but credits his late uncle, Frank West, who was a developer, as one of his mentors.

He made the heads in “Utterance” abstract so that the focus is on the sound and not the faces. He talks about the piece on his website.

“The voices overlap like they are talking over one other,” West said. “This is exciting to me because I am always learning technology is becoming such a big part of art. We want people to be able to touch this and feel it and listen to it. The more you are tied to it, the more it will affect you. I want people to think and to pause and for them to not be a prisoner of their thoughts.”

“I am right, and you are wrong,” West said. “And I am not listening to what you have to say. Why can’t we just talk to each other and learn how can we communicate better? I hope this piece starts a dialog.”

So do the talking heads.