Voices & Vessels
Wind Vessels
I have been interested in the idea of vessels, particularly as a way to hold or present my voice. With this shift in focus from the elements being a background noise to the wind and rain being at the forefront of my work, I began recording the wind. I have been interested in wind for a while, particularly looking at links to breath and life. I found that the original Hebrew word for wind, Ruach is the same as the word for breath and spirit.
In these works I placed a speaker playing the sound of the wind into a pot inside the house. The videos are really a documentation of an installation/performance work. Having a howling gale appear to come from the depths of a pot gives a sense of a whole other world being let out when the lid is taken off. The echoes and rumbling of the vibrations through the pot became quite intense when viewing the work in person.
In most cases you can click on an image of a video piece to see the full film on YouTube.
Poly Show
In 2020 I took part in a group show in the Falmouth Poly and exhibited a sound piece. I was able to have a whole window sill and floorspace in front to myself, and I used one of the sofas in the Poly as a place to sit and listen, with four speakers surrounding, one or two vocal lines playing from each. This is only really possible because it is my voice singing each part separately. If the pieces had been sung by a choir I couldn't have split up the voice parts and assigned them to speakers as I did.
Photo of Poly Show set up with four speakers and 'listening sofa'. Click image to see film of the show.
Collaboration with Lily-Peach Forster
I collaborated with Lily-Peach who was making work revolving around breath, to create a makeshift joint exhibition, displaying her prints, photographs and sculptures alongside my films, sound recordings and photographs. The body itself is a vessel to carry the voice, and she had made rough clay pots, so we decided to try placing some speakers playing my voice recordings in them, exploring different resonances and sounds. The fact that they are clay pots was significant: they are a metaphor for the human body, originating from the earth. In the Bible God is described as a potter, creating humans from clay. This clay therefore holds breath and the voice.
Click on any image to see the complete film on YouTube.