Bill Fontana was a pioneer of sound art in the 1970s, and since then he has made installations all around the world, using objects as resonators and moving immobile landmarks around by transferring their sounds (“taking” Big Ben into a London gallery, for instance).

Seattle collectors William and Ruth True commissioned a full-scale installation from Fontana for this summer, and the piece occupies the entire building of Western Bridge, their private gallery space. In town for the installation recently, the San Francisco-based artist took a few minutes to talk about what he was doing: