Day 2 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
Today in the crypt, we experimented some more with the title / concept of As Above So Below, and installed a mirror on a plinth facing upwards towards the upper church above. This ‘turning things on their heads’ brought a surrealist, uncanny experience when peering into the mirror.
When visitors step into the crypt for the first time, there are always clearly surprised at this space, and the contrast to the ‘normal’ urban world outside, just inches away. This sense of the surreal, the uncanny, of transforming the ordinary and turning it around, is something we want to work more with.
As Above So Below day 2 video work in progress from Ellen Southern on Vimeo.We created a second sound installation which again reached accross the length of the crypt from 2 sound sources. This time we doubled the recording ‘Harmonium Breathing’ from day 1 (the sound of the hiss and the bellows without pressing the keys), and played them out staggered so they cycled and phased in a really interesting, hypnotic, almost industrial-sounding way, the warm, slightly irregular, wooden texture also gave it a somehow human quality. It was a good sound to work to – it sounded itself like work, it suited our own industriousness. We made handouts for our ‘work in progress’ visitors, and flyers for our closing event and cut them in rhythm to the sound reverberating around us.
We created some more graphite rubbings, particularly a large rubbing from the tiles in the upper church, it was exciting to scale up that element of the work.
We were thrilled to see the Churches Conservation Trust has been on social media, promoting our work in progress!
Site Singing 