I Heard A Sound That Carries | 2023
I heard a sound that carries.
Crosses planes, a sonic wave kinetic and potential.
An ancient divination.
I wander, dance along its coils in search of mothers’ gardens.
With body, breath and voice to move -
Polyrhythms, circles turning.
With winds and words and hands - in earth, turned over.
They spoke to drums to summon gods; I hope to summon futures.
And memories. And wishes too.
With time, a place somewhere between and hopeful blooms.
What was and is and will become; a song of many voices.
Inspired by Alice Walker’s call for artists to ‘go in search of our mother’s gardens’, I Heard A Sound That Carries is a performance film exploring the polyformal potential of sound, non-linear temporality, movement, memories and echoes in nature.
The film and performance pays tribute to a place and memory from my childhood. A place I’m often wishing to return to - be it physically or as the freedom of creative expression permits - in some spiritual sense. The film was created alongside a soundscape and accompanying audio-visual installation, making attempts by way of ‘a sonic wave’ to travel to-and-from this treasured place.
The 10 minute performance film was installed as part of a group show titled ‘Folded Eight Times’ at APT Gallery, Deptford in March 2023. View documentation here.