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Shorelines' latest Newfoundland-Ireland collaboration http://www.thewesternstar.com/index.cfm?sid=152126&sc=29 GARY KEAN CORNER BROOK - For the third time in the last 10 years, a major cultural exchange of artistic ideas is in the works between Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador. As with the previous projects, the latest will be co-curated by Corner Brook's Charlotte Jones and Ireland's Sean McCrum, and will eventually lead to an artistic exhibition to be shown both in Canada and on Irish soil. The previous two cultural exchanges were "Wood," an exploration of the diverse approaches to and values of wood sculpture, which exhibited in Corner Brook in 1999, and the "Limestone Barrens Project," an examination of the mysterious geology common to parts of the Northern Peninsula, Ireland and Ontario, which exhibited in Corner Brook in 2004. The third in the series, "Shorelines," brings together artists from both places with the hope of inspiring new artwork engaging shorelines, which are significant not only for their beauty but their environmental, geological, cultural and historic importance. Sound artist Slavek Kwi, music composers David Stalling and Anthony Kelly (errata: Anthony is visual artist), and McCrum were recently in western Newfoundland visiting the remote coastal community of Conche on the Northern Peninsula before joining the Newfoundland contingent on the Port au Port Peninsula. The host artists consisted of photographer Pierre LeBlanc of Corner Brook, filmmaker Ann Troake and visual artist Angela Antle. "From the Irish side, one of the strong points is this thing called sound art, which I think is intentionally quite difficult to define," said McCrum. "You take a room and the sound artists are able to use electronics or acoustics and various forms of visual art to redefine the room. The room is defining what they do and they are defining what happens in the room." Of course, a room may be an interior space or it may be the open air along the water's edge. During their visit, the artists basically collected a cache of material - mostly audio recordings - which they will continue to examine and exchange with each other with the idea of creating something meaningful. For instance, Kwi used a hydrophone to try and record whale sounds from a boat off Conche and also recorded howling winds through the massive, wooden Our Lady of Mercy Church on the Port au Port Peninsula. Capturing attention Whereas people are said to search for defined melody and rhythm when they think of music, Kwi said sound art is more broadly making sense of anything that captures the attention. "It is the pleasure of listening to different sounds and organizing them in different situations, which can be interesting to listen to," he said. Making sound art, meanwhile, is indeed different from what Stalling is used to. "It's interesting for me as a composer to be involved with collecting sounds as they occur and as they surround us," he said. "It is something I wouldn't necessarily be occupied with as a composer, who writes down notes for instruments." For LeBlanc, observing sound artists at work was a treat that widened his eyes to making art. "I absolutely love sound art and have listened to it for a long time, but I never really understood how sound artists worked," he said. "It was truly a pleasure to watch them go about their business and realize how close what they do is to what I do as a photographer. It's about a collection and then a reflection and try to represent that activity or experience." For instance, LeBlanc said listening to the creaking church in the wind after hearing how its construction was based on a boat design made him think of a boat creaking in the waves. Antle, though a visual artist, works in radio and was fascinated by the French accents she heard on the Port au Port Peninsula. She interviewed many people and hopes to work on a storytelling project between children from there and children in Ireland. The Irish component of the exchange will involve a visit to that country in the spring of 2009 and it is hoped that the first Shorelines exhibition will occur in Ireland in the fall of 2009. The exhibition may come to Newfoundland and Labrador in the spring of 2010.
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Stalling placing microphone in Sheaves Coves |
