my first foray into sound sculpture.
in June this year the Old Goods Yard in Treborth, where i have my studio hosted an event organised by Bangor Sound City, an organisation set up to develop and promote sound art and put Bangor on the map as the UKs first ‘Sound City’. http://www.bangorsoundcity.org
the focus of the event was the re-staging of the controversial ‘piano burning’ soundwork, created by Annea Lockwood and first done in the 70s, so we were taking part in a piece of art history across an expanse of time in which attitudes towards the use of rare woods and destruction of a musical instrument may have changed. it was however a quite moving and amazing thing to watch a piano burn, with people playing the piano initially, and later on hearing wood cracking and strings popping.
For this event the resident artists at the yard were invited to respond to and create our own works, and this allowed me to explore further ideas that have gradually been accumulating on the fantastic sound qualities of the many pieces of scrap metal i have in my studio. i have a very strong interest in both music and dance, or movement, my own work is very physically, viscerally rooted so its a natural thing for me to want to explore cross artform work of this kind.
so, every piece was selected primarily for its sound properties, but many of these are also interesting forms and/or from amusing sources. they didn’t just make interesting sounds when struck like a drum but could be explored by shaking, scraping, or a gentle tap that triggered a resonant wobble. the frame has stayed up and some pieces play themselves in the wind like large chimes.
this was all put together on a frame that allowed two musician/ dancers to explore these different pieces in movement and percussion, and this was entirely improvised for the bangor sound city event. Colin Daimond of Urban Dance Collage runs junk percussion workshops and is also a contemporary dance choreographer and capoeira tutor, we share studios at The Old Goods Yard. http://colindaimond.co.uk/udc/
it is hoped that further development and collaboration will build on this
scrapyardqueen 