Day 1 of the Site Singing collaborative artist residency at St John on the Wall, Bristol, by Markus Feiler (Berlin) and Ellen Southern (Bristol).
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/748883498776844
Its been the first day our collaborative Site Singing artist residency at St John on the Wall, Bristol. We (myself and Berlin-based artist Markus Feiler) are working in the upper and lower church (crypt) of this amazing site, and showing work in progress daily from 3-6pm untl Wednesday the 10th October (inclusive).
Read more about the residency here
Today we began our work by bringing sounds from the upper church into the lower church. We recorded ourselves seperatley improvising on the harmonium, and then played out each recording from an opposite side of the crypt below, the two audios cycling, combining and reverberating together in the space.
We also recorded the harmonium ‘breathing’…working the bellows with our feet without pressing the keys.
Then we started creating graphite and charcoal rubbings from the floors of both spaces. We liked leaving the rubbings in place on the tombs, and we also liked taking random words and assembling them separate to the tombs.
We made a video of entering both the spaces, which we will project onto the walls of the crypt tomorrow.
As Above So Below: a Site Singing collaborative artist residency DAY 1 from Ellen Southern on Vimeo.We welcomed many visitors to the crypt, and showed them the work in progress.
Early in the day we passed by an abandoned graveyard tucked away down a side alley, Tailors Court (named after the Tailors Guild building next to it) just near St Johns. A local group is trying to get it preserved, and have posted some information flyers about it nearby. We discovered some intriguing medieval sculptures on the wall of this forgotten place. (note, on day 3 we discovered from a volunteer in the upper church, that this is in fact the lost graveyard of St Johns itself. We have decided to feature something of this forgotten place in our work, to reconnect it to the church again, at least visually.)
Site Singing 