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KEIO LINE : 2006
DVD Projection - 8 minutes looped
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The feeling of displacement was acute during the first few days of my residency in Tokyo. The daily train journey to my temporary studio intensified this reaction as I watched the unfamiliar urban landscape rush past. Keio Line is experienced as a large projection with surround sound enabling the audience to become similarly immersed in another environment.
SHIBUYA CROSSING : 2006
Floor DVD projection - 4mins 34 secs looped
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The sheer numbers of people is one of the first things that strike on visiting Tokyo for the first time. Equally noticeable is the religiously observed daily and weekly routines, one of which is the visit by the younger population to Shibuya, home of large department stores. Augmented by the affluent shopper in limousines, the majority arrive by train and flood in their hundreds across the road outside the station exit. Despite the volume of people, road safety is, for the most part, complied with, underlining the Japanese way of order and controlled behaviour.
BEING : 2006
Multi-screen/projected dvd installation, variable loops
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BEING was made as a result of a two week residency in Tokyo, Japan - part of the exchange programme between Norwich School of Art and Design and the Asagaya School of Art and Design. The work, shown on three TV monitors and two projections drew on the parallels and differences between the Japanese and British culture using domestic tea drinking as a framework and was shown simultaneously in the Visions Gallery, Tokyo and the Artist’s Space at Firstsite, Colchester.
BREATH DRAWINGS : 2006
Performance and documentary video
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In my quest to work with a material as visually elusive as breath, I attempted to draw with my breath and to make visual the action of breathing. These abortive attempts were performed and documented on video. They form an ongoing growing collection of breath drawing actions.
The breath drawing film was shown at Dark and Daring ii, film festival in St Mary on the Quay Church, Ipswich in 2006.
THE RAINBOW PASSAGE : 2005
DVD 3 minute loop
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The Rainbow Passage shows video footage taken during a nasendoscopy. This procedure (when a small camera is inserted into the nose and follows a path to the back of the oral cavity until the vocal folds are visible) allows medical professionals to clearly see the body ‘in action’ and to examine for any abnormalities.
The artist has chose to take the viewer directly to the source of the audible voice, confronting them with an intimate view of the functioning body. The text being read is The Rainbow Passage – a text commonly used by speech and language therapists when assessing the voice. It is heard through short-lead headphones placing the viewer in close proximity to the visual image. The sound is distant and ethereal, almost disembodied and there is a real beauty in the choreography of the moving image. It dances and pulses, affecting the air with complete accuracy and control.
SLIP OF THE TONGUE : 2005
DVD 2 minute loop
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The tongue plays a crucial role in the formation of vocal sound. It acts as conductor and orchestrator of sound within the oral cavity. Using an ultrasound scanner (more commonly associated with antenatal use) is a new method of exploring vocal production. In this work it is the artist’s own tongue, scanned from below the chin. The resulting image – a grainy moving eel-like shape swimming across the screen is surprisingly agile. The accompanying sound (heard through earphones) exaggerates the ‘inner’ corporeal voice that is experienced when talking and in this work is panned across from right to left filling the viewer’s head with resonance and reverberation.
SEVEN HUNDRED WORDS : 2005
DVD 16 minute loop
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Our voices are inextricably linked to our outward persona and to how we choose to present ourselves to the world. These concerns led to the work Seven Hundred Words that took as a starting point a list of 100 descriptive words for voice. The list of terms (for example, stentorian, pingy and warm) were read out by seven people, male and female, ranging in age from the teenage years to seventy years old. Each person was given minimal instructions to read the list of words to camera and as their meaning suggested.
The work functions on several levels. It relates to pronunciation and portrays individuality; it is an example of how the presentation of ourselves to the outside world is effected through voice. As we watch the work over a period of time the character of the participants grows and we begin to make assumptions about their speech delivery and character.
Whilst at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, I became fascinated by the methods used to assess voice qualitatively and quantitatively and the difficulties presented in achieving a country wide recognisable mode of expression. Vocal profile Analysis, developed in Edinburgh, has allowed a consistent approach to assessment of voice by speech therapists. This system has standardised methods throughout the UK. Seven Hundred Words presents the difficulty in voice assessment. The individual voices present the difference in subjective perception and personal interpretation.
VOICE HUMAN ACTION : 2005
Made in collaboration with composer Andrew Lovett
Documentation of performance, DVD 20 minutes
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Body resonance is one element in the production of human sound. Voice Human Action was conceived by the artist in collaboration with composer Andrew Lovett and brings together the visual and audible into one work. The magnificent architecture of the Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire – the setting for the premiere of the work - has astounding acoustic qualities that subvert the expected aural experience. Performers, in their roles as actionists or singers, moved under the magnificent fan vaulted ceiling creating shapes and visual drawings that resembled the vocal folds and tongue inside an architectural voice box.
REPEATER : 2005
Durational performance, Cork Ireland for Soundworks, part of the European Capital of Culture programme
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This work was performed in the university music building in Cork – an old monastery that was once used as a place for refuge and retreat. The piece was based around the continuous repetition of the Ten repetitious sound of the writing was transferred through radio mics to the area outside the performance space announcing the action to the audience before they encountered the artist. Repeater explores the power of repetition as a way of learning and embodiment of information, it plays on the religious communicative practice of power and control and the value of regular routine to instill knowledge.
also performed at Camberwell Arts Festival 2006
www.camberwellarts.org
ERASURE : 2003
Video 2 minute loop
Two hands grapple and jostle for position on the screen – one writing and the other erasing the written words as sson as they are written. The hands belong to two different people – it is clear they are of a different age – and there transpires a power struggle between them to gain the superiority of control within the relationship.
FLIGHT : 2003
Video 3 minute loop
A short film using footage of caged birds taken in Barcelona and birds in flight in the UK. These are coupled with imagery of blue skies and plane trails and a soundtrack of choral music. Symbolic of choice, expression and freedom, the bird becomes the signifier for a world of reducing liberty and increasing control.
