Vestiges Park – Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010
A Collective Intervention into a Forgotten Landscape – In association with Lowsalt (Glasgow)
Commisioned as part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts 2010 Funded by Scottish Arts Council The creation of 2 soundscapes to complement an outdoor sculpture park inspired by the publication ‘Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation’ written by Scottish Journalist Robert Chambers in 1844.
Piece 1: God Left a Long Time Ago (29 min loop) – Projected from the front entrance to the park this piece intended to draw in curious passers-by, emitting the sounds of sporadic beasts and morphed lifeforms to compliment the oddities that lay within the vegetal depths inside.
Piece 2: Derive Nostalgic From Nostalgic Derivatives (12 min loop) – Focused amongst the sculptures inside the hidden speakers injected substance and an unnerving edge as visitors toured the artworks.
The creation of hybrid animal calls and cries were designed from field recordings and human vocalisation recorded at 192 Khz sample rate to allow lower digital defects when time stretched. These where then placed over background field recordings and sent through a Lexicon reverb unit to place them inside the background as if echoing through the forest or swamp.
‘Coming out of Jimmie Durham’s exhibition at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, where the Native American artist delves into the links between Scots colonialists and the Cherokee, I found myself in a patch of feral wasteland next to a railway line. Choked with Japanese knotweed, this is Vestiges Park. Strange, mirrored figures stand in the weeds, reflecting the branches. Side tables and other domestic furniture dangle from trees. There are monsters and mushrooms: it is enjoyable nonsense. Unidentifiable burps, groans and other fanciful animal chatter rise from the undergrowth; a disembodied voice emanating from a hole in the ground talks about eating property developers and committing other laudably foul acts. There is something of the Provo spirit in this project, curated by the artist-run Glasgow gallery Lowsalt.’ Adrian Searle – The Guardian
