Being There

June 2013

A-Side B-Side Gallery, London, UK

This work takes as a premise the fact that all sound must be ‘made’ in some way. Something must happen in order for the sound to happen. An action of some kind must take place: the hand against the drum; the door closing; the footstep; the hand that presses play or starts the computer; and even the decisions actioned by a computer process set in motion. All sounds have action at their core.

In this work I present sound recordings. Recordings which have recorded the moment in time and space when an action occurred which made a sound. Re-presented in time and place, these recordings hold within them their record of action and event, and also the unique characteristics of the space and place in which they were recorded. It could be said that sound recordings serve as a trace of the actions and resulting sounds recorded by them. But herin lies a dichotomy, for sound surely leaves no trace. Like time, once passed, sound may no longer be perceived except in the mind of the receiver.

‘being there’ was a two part group show exploring traces of presence curated by Jillian Knipe. Part One (7th-9th June 2013) featured installation, film, painting, drawing and sculpture. Part Two (14th-16th June 2013) exhibited a trace of Part One where partially dismantled works sat alongside new collaborative sound and light projections by Mika Sellens, Bradley Murray and Jillian Knipe.

As a sound artist, Mika has worked on several projects exploring sound and place. For ‘being there’ she developed an idea, in collaboration with Jillian Knipe, of creating sound traces of Part One of the exhibition. Recordings were made then edited with a sense of what the recordings themselves were – mindful of the vignettes they describe. The sound piece then re-entered and re-existed in the space in which the original recordings were made. As a whispering echo of time past they bear witness to a happening, amplifying what would otherwise, perhaps, be taken for granted.

Images of the work: