The Lung
A sound gallery tucked into a row of lockers at the Laramie Plains Civic Center, where national sound artists are invited to make new work from the stories one building has been holding for nearly 150 years.
A building that breathes
Roughly eight months of the year, the Laramie Plains Civic Center hums. The steam-heating boiler below clicks and whirs through its long winter shift, and the whole building seems to breathe with it. When spring comes and the boiler powers down, the halls go quiet.
The Lung was made to fill that silence. The gallery takes its name from its first commission, THE LUNG, with concept and sound by John Wilhelm and visual design by Jess Brauer. Inspired by the character of the boiler, John composed a looping piece that layered the building's past and present at once: field recordings, archival sound, and interviews with Civic Center staff and tenants, mangled and manipulated into ghost stories spanning nearly 150 years.
John's installation has closed, but the lockers stay open. ALCES Community Works continues to invite national sound artists into the space, each making work for this building and no other, each adding another layer to what The Lung remembers.