Part of the Artcore Winter Narratives residency
Feather
Early one morning, I went to the farm and sat alone listening to the sounds of night unfolding into day. As the light crept in, so did the monkeys screeching amongst themselves and at my intrusion. The birds began just before dawn. I sat with my eyes closed just listening intently. The layers of sound were heard as an intermingling of monkeys, birds, peacocks, snuffling of wild boar and other animals. I carried these sounds within me to an abandoned stone house where I lay on the cold floor to get the best resonances. Here, I tried to emulate what I had heard on a soprano recorder. Recording all this, the original and my mimesis, a sound piece was created which was played for the Winter Narratives exhibition. It is hard to distinguish the natural sounds from my playing especially when it was played in the jungle surroundings of the farm. For the exhibition, I displayed a feather of a peahen as representative of these sounds and which I carefully placed it in a jewellers carved wooden box as a precious object.
