Sunday 27 July 2014

Voicelessness / On being absent


Voicing thoughts on voicelessness and being absent for Unkept


Photographs by Liam James: documentation from the work, Wind Poem for a Cobweb - performance in 5 parts, as part of Unkept exhibition 2014.






Map of ideas


When Polly asked me to contribute a hand-written letter to the artist talk, I didn't really feel like writing a letter, but I had drawn a map of my ideas behind the works in the show whilst on a train and decided to send her a copy of that instead. I did it to help me get down some of the recurring thoughts I had had about the various works as they were developing, and then to see what connections were there between them all. In the end it felt like everything was getting too connected, man. But I guess that's just how art practices go...

Transoceanic Whistle


Tuesday 1 July 2014

Notes on whistling



Claire:
I'm thinking about a sound work that's a dialogue between you and me, where we both record ourselves attempting to whistle to each other. I have thought a lot with this exhibition about communicating back home, the absence/presence thing, how we can play off the fact of our distance and make a work out of it. And I love that neither of us can whistle, I think that's a pretty interesting discovery. In my mind the work would be like a calling out to each other, but also a camaraderie in our lifelong inability to whistle - a way of making something kind of beautiful and funny and sad out of it.

Wind:
Attempting to whistle is kind of like the wind.
The whistles blowing our dust works around.
The wind blowing down a corridor.
The wind blowing across oceans.
The wind filling the sails of ships.

Jessie:
I also like the romance of wind blowing across the ocean. I was making/thinking about flags alot last/early this year - prayer flags from Mongolia and then maritime signals - which also led into thinking about ships and their sails - and thinking about how the wind plays an important role. Without it they would all just be pieces of fabric. I also come from a family of sailors so I guess I think about yachts and sailboats with the wind and the sea too.

Communication:
In La Gomera in the Canary Islands they use whistling to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island:
"This method of communication, in which the Spanish language is replaced by two whistled vowels and four consonants, has a peculiarity perfectly suited to this landscape of deep valleys and steep ravines. It has the ability to travel up to 3.2km, much further and with less effort than shouting."

Superstition:
Whistling at night is thought to attract bad luck.
Whistling indoors is supposed to bring poverty.
Whistling on board a ship in a calm will bring the wind but to whistle on board when the wind is blowing is to bring a gale.

Sayings:
"Whistling in the dark" is to console or encourage someone in trouble.
"Whistling in the wind" is a futile attempt at something.
"Whistling down the wind" is to cast someone or something off to its own fate, from the sport of falconry - when hawks are released to hunt they are sent upwind and when turned loose for recreation they are sent downwind.

Titles:
'You just put your lips together and blow (attempts to whistle across the seas)
'Transcontinental whistle conversation'
'Transoceanic whistle conversation'
'Transoceanic whistle'

Time:
At opposite ends of the day.
Within an hour of a specified time.
Is there a particular time important to sailors?

Whistling in the wind:
The work in itself being a futile attempt - to communicate across the world, for either of us to whistle.