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RECENT COLLABORATIONS
DANCE POEMS FROM SILENCE
Seven Continents, Seven Songs, Seven Dances
SASCHA MOCK is a Dresden-based composer/musician. Sascha contacted me in early 2021 with a request to use my poem
At Home in Antarctica as a prompt for two new compositions, the first of which is included in an international dance/videography
project coordinated by Czech-based artist/choreographer, Jiří Bubeníček and artist/costume designer, Nadina Cojocaru: Dance Poems from Silence | Seven Continents, Seven Songs, Seven Dances.
These seven dance videos were released one 'continent' at a time, beginning January 2022.
At Home in Antarctica as a prompt for two new compositions, the first of which is included in an international dance/videography
project coordinated by Czech-based artist/choreographer, Jiří Bubeníček and artist/costume designer, Nadina Cojocaru: Dance Poems from Silence | Seven Continents, Seven Songs, Seven Dances.
These seven dance videos were released one 'continent' at a time, beginning January 2022.
Antarctica | Composition by Sascha Mock
Lyrics | At Home in Antarctica | Poem by Claire Beynon |
My reading of At Home in Antarctica
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A second composition that carries the same title as the poem, At Home in Antarctica, is on Sascha's newly-released album,
Nostalgic Kind of Light.
You can find his album on Bandcamp: mockkrieger.bandcamp.com/album/nostalgic-kind-of-light
and on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/79qPdPCG38vqFzr0xjUQVD?si=LumelYLhT8i8XirelVhkaw
For more details on Dance Poems from Silence, visit https://jiribubenicek.com/projects/tanzgedichte-aus-der-stille/
Campsite | Bay of Sails, Antarctica | Photograph: Shawn Harper
LIFELINES | Various People Inc*
The Lab @ Light | 63 Light Square, Adelaide, SA | July 2021
* Various People Inc creates deconstructed chamber vocal works for intimate audiences in non-traditional venues, with contemporary socio-cultural connections. Their productions create intersections between music, design, installation and the social conscience, deconstructing the traditional chamber music format and working across art forms with diverse stakeholders to illuminate some of the compelling issues of our time.
"LIFELINES speaks to the journeys we all make, the challenges we face, and the myriad ways in which we seek to strive, to grow, and to learn more about what it is to be human.
LIFELINES has grown from two sources of inspiration: the settings by Richard Chew of text fragments by philosophers and writers offering observations on the art of living; and the ground-breaking Antarctic expeditions lead by Douglas Mawson in the early 1900s.
Conceived within the grand tradition of the heroic journey, the early Antarctic expeditions demanded resilience and endurance on both an existential and a domestic scale. From managing opposing personalities within the confines of a communal hut over long dark winters, through acclimatising to the almost constant howl of the wind, to superhuman treks for survival through the desolate and dangerous snowscape, the Antarctic visitors had to dig deep to find the personal qualities they needed to draw on.
Most of the early Antarctic expeditioners were men, although a surprising number of women did visit the Antarctic in the early 1900s. In more recent times, scientists and artists of all genders have had the opportunity to experience this extraordinary southern landscape, to discover, to learn and to advance human knowledge.
LIFELINES offers an impression of the Antarctic experience of travellers a century apart, centring on explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson, and artist and poet Claire Beynon. I have selected images from three sources - Frank Hurley’s photographs from the early 1900s, Claire Beynon’s artworks in response to her Antarctic visits in the early 21st century, and photographs taken by my father Trevor Pickering. My mother died last year, and my father is increasingly diminished with advancing dementia. They would have been delighted that these images of their Antarctic experience are a part of LIFELINES.
Many people and organisations have played a part in bringing this project to fruition. I would like to thank Amanda and Riana at Chamber Music Adelaide, Jill and Nancy at the SA Museum, and Anne, Kate, Connor, Max, Michael and Oscar at The Lab. Special thanks for the generosity of Mark Pharoah, Senior Collections Manager, Mawson Centre, South Australian Museum, whose detailed knowledge of and boundless enthusiasm for his subject has been inspirational and uplifting."
Cheryl Pickering | Director, VARIOUS PEOPLE INC. (Adelaide) | July 2021
LIFELINES has grown from two sources of inspiration: the settings by Richard Chew of text fragments by philosophers and writers offering observations on the art of living; and the ground-breaking Antarctic expeditions lead by Douglas Mawson in the early 1900s.
Conceived within the grand tradition of the heroic journey, the early Antarctic expeditions demanded resilience and endurance on both an existential and a domestic scale. From managing opposing personalities within the confines of a communal hut over long dark winters, through acclimatising to the almost constant howl of the wind, to superhuman treks for survival through the desolate and dangerous snowscape, the Antarctic visitors had to dig deep to find the personal qualities they needed to draw on.
Most of the early Antarctic expeditioners were men, although a surprising number of women did visit the Antarctic in the early 1900s. In more recent times, scientists and artists of all genders have had the opportunity to experience this extraordinary southern landscape, to discover, to learn and to advance human knowledge.
LIFELINES offers an impression of the Antarctic experience of travellers a century apart, centring on explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson, and artist and poet Claire Beynon. I have selected images from three sources - Frank Hurley’s photographs from the early 1900s, Claire Beynon’s artworks in response to her Antarctic visits in the early 21st century, and photographs taken by my father Trevor Pickering. My mother died last year, and my father is increasingly diminished with advancing dementia. They would have been delighted that these images of their Antarctic experience are a part of LIFELINES.
Many people and organisations have played a part in bringing this project to fruition. I would like to thank Amanda and Riana at Chamber Music Adelaide, Jill and Nancy at the SA Museum, and Anne, Kate, Connor, Max, Michael and Oscar at The Lab. Special thanks for the generosity of Mark Pharoah, Senior Collections Manager, Mawson Centre, South Australian Museum, whose detailed knowledge of and boundless enthusiasm for his subject has been inspirational and uplifting."
Cheryl Pickering | Director, VARIOUS PEOPLE INC. (Adelaide) | July 2021
* Various People Inc creates deconstructed chamber vocal works for intimate audiences in non-traditional venues, with contemporary socio-cultural connections. Their productions create intersections between music, design, installation and the social conscience, deconstructing the traditional chamber music format and working across art forms with diverse stakeholders to illuminate some of the compelling issues of our time.
". . . Unaccompanied voices soar and intertwine in music by Richard Chew, Jodie O’Regan and Anne Cawrse. Interwoven with the music are fragments of memories and experiences, the sounds of wind and ice, and a stunning Antarctic videoscape."
Conceived and directed by Cheryl Pickering
Designed by Emma O’Neill
Performed by Kate Macfarlane, Mark Oates, Emlyn O’Regan, Jodie O’Regan, Cheryl Pickering.
". . . Unaccompanied voices soar and intertwine in music by Richard Chew, Jodie O’Regan and Anne Cawrse. Interwoven with the music are fragments of memories and experiences, the sounds of wind and ice, and a stunning Antarctic videoscape."
Conceived and directed by Cheryl Pickering
Designed by Emma O’Neill
Performed by Kate Macfarlane, Mark Oates, Emlyn O’Regan, Jodie O’Regan, Cheryl Pickering.
GROMIADNA
A collaboration with Rupert Summerson (Canberra, Australia)
One of the most demanding (and exciting!) collaborative projects I've worked on was an online (ad)venture titled A VAST SCALE | Evocations of Antarctica (AVS). AVS was a Ning community site created and managed in partnership with my Canberra-based friend and fellow Antarctican, Rupert Summerson.
Between us, we created a series of short ice-related videos for the Ning site for the purpose of engendering discussion re; the Antarctic environment, sound/music and aesthetics; this was an informal research project whose focus was more on creative process, networking and subjective opinion than on hard-nosed statistics and conclusive findings. We presented a joint paper at the Antarctica Sound conference in Canberra in July 2011. Thanks to the internet we were were able to construct, compose and co-ordinate this collaboration entirely over distance.
During my years of ArtScience collaboration with polar biologist Sam Bowser, I developed a fascination for the DNA and RNA sequences of the protists we were studying and found myself looking for ways to incorporate them into my studio practice. DNA and RNA sequences look to me like musical notation. They have an allusive, percussive quality. It seemed a good idea, then, to transcribe their sequences into quasi-musical notation; why not 'play' the protist's DNA?
A concert was being arranged as an adjunct event to the Antarctica conference in Canberra. Rupert and I agreed to using the RNA sequence of Gromia cf. oviformis as the prompt for a film piece. He created a 'sequence code' out of the various 4-letter configurations, transcribing these into Japanese musical notation for performance on his shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese wind instrument. The result was an unusual, primitive and haunting piece of music. On paper, the score itself is visually exquisite. I especially love the way its linear composition emulates the 'rain' made by volcanic sediment as it travels across the sea ice from the Dry Valleys before filtering down through ice and water to the ocean floor where Gromia have their home.
We used a combination of silent film footage and shakuhachi to make visible a creature whose behaviour and habitat are ordinarily invisible to the naked eye.
GromiaDNA | Musical interpretation of the DNA code of Gromia, an ancient single-celled creature whose home (in this instance) is the floor of the Southern Ocean.
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INTERFACE | Antarctica ArtScience
with polar biologist Samuel Bowser
INTERFACE was a collaboratively conceived exhibition and accompanying multi-media presentation exploring the relationships between art and science, intuition and knowledge, fact and the imagination.
In line with International Polar Year objectives, one of the emphases of INTERFACE was inter-disciplinary, intercontinental exchange, with a goal of increasing the public's understanding of the importance of Antarctica in the global system. References to major international research projects such as ANDRILL, as well as environmental issues such as the greenhouse effect and global climate change are implicit in this work.
The word ‘interface’ is a fusion of ‘inter’ meaning ‘between’ and ‘facio,’ ‘to make’ or ‘to do.’ In everyday language, it means ‘to bring into relationship.’ The word ICE is embedded within the word ‘interface’ making this a pertinent title since it references Antarctica and at the same time focuses in on the parallels between image-making and scientific processes. In both cases, understanding is often not immediate - patience and focus are required to bring content into view. In this – and in many other respects - science and art are kindred disciplines, each being a layered exploration of information and meaning.
THE HUM OF THE PARTS | A Global Honeycomb
Beyond our geographical, ideological/religious and political differences, we have a shared language that affirms us as kin. We have the potential to work together for the greatest good at a time in global history that is at once complex and inspiring, daunting and wondrous.
This collaborative honeycomb is a whole of many parts whose purpose is to stitch together a cross-section of life as observed and experienced in countries around the globe; think of us creating a new, unified continent, one that weaves together our diverse languages and ways of seeing and that celebrates science alongside poetry, the UN’s Goals for Sustainable Living beside ancient aquatic organisms, music in dialogue with mathematical theorems.
The stitching process is documentary in nature, not in the way of news reportage but rather as a means of processing current realities via visual metaphor in an attempt to bring light to the ‘happenings of the times’ and so to find the stories that connect us.
This collaborative honeycomb is a whole of many parts whose purpose is to stitch together a cross-section of life as observed and experienced in countries around the globe; think of us creating a new, unified continent, one that weaves together our diverse languages and ways of seeing and that celebrates science alongside poetry, the UN’s Goals for Sustainable Living beside ancient aquatic organisms, music in dialogue with mathematical theorems.
The stitching process is documentary in nature, not in the way of news reportage but rather as a means of processing current realities via visual metaphor in an attempt to bring light to the ‘happenings of the times’ and so to find the stories that connect us.
SOUND STILL | IRMA STERN MUSEUM, Cape Town, South Africa
Exhibition & performances
by International artists
Katherine Glenday (SA), Christina Bryer (SA), Lore Heuermann (Austria), Claire Beynon (New Zealand), John Turest-Swartz (SA),
Mirjam Macleod (SA), Lyn Smuts (SA), Neo Muyanga (SA), Johan Rautenbach (SA) & the Remix dance company (Cape Town, SA)
by International artists
Katherine Glenday (SA), Christina Bryer (SA), Lore Heuermann (Austria), Claire Beynon (New Zealand), John Turest-Swartz (SA),
Mirjam Macleod (SA), Lyn Smuts (SA), Neo Muyanga (SA), Johan Rautenbach (SA) & the Remix dance company (Cape Town, SA)
". . . Visual images are compelling exactly because they are multifaceted objects. That which is visible, always implies all that is invisible. This exhibition around sound is also an exhibition about silence, and, for several of the participants, like New Zealand artist Claire Beynon, about stillness. Beynon says, ‘Silence suggests an experience of absence or aloneness, whereas in fact, it can be one of presence and oneness. Stillness and silence are dynamic. They are potent spaces - ways of being that resonate with energy. Silence contains and emanates all the fullness of sound. Similarly, stillness is anything but static. It reveals our connectedness with and separation from our environment. It exposes memory, challenges reality and the imagined, highlights knowledge and ignorance of self and other, accompanies us through life and death, teaches patience, protects innocence, encourages community’".
Excerpt from Exhibition essay by Lyn Smuts | August 2006
". . . I think that the time has come for us to retrieve many areas of understanding which have been lost to us and which the ‘primitives’ once knew. We will access this intelligence differently as our understanding of the world has changed. The contemporary perception of matter and the metaphysical does seem to be repairing chasms of erstwhile division. These divisions have existed between energy and matter, between the masculine and feminine, and between the individual and the community or tribe."
Katherine Glenday | Exhibition notes
"This is no ordinary exhibition. It begs an opening of mind, an embrace of sensory and of human interconnectedness; and a paying of homage to the individual voices of the many artists who make up this choir. It is a choir that sings an arresting and unusual song. It is a song that gains complexity and interest because of unison. Alone the voices are each unique and interesting. Together they gather the force of echoes in mountain valleys; and together they create the form of the circle. For people all holding hands naturally make circles. And pebbles thrown into still lakes make circles and circles and circles. For this exhibition I like the image of the stone, the lake and the ripples. And I like the sound of the plop and the waiting stillness of the lake. . ."
From the opening address by Anne Emslie | 28 August 2006
Excerpt from Exhibition essay by Lyn Smuts | August 2006
". . . I think that the time has come for us to retrieve many areas of understanding which have been lost to us and which the ‘primitives’ once knew. We will access this intelligence differently as our understanding of the world has changed. The contemporary perception of matter and the metaphysical does seem to be repairing chasms of erstwhile division. These divisions have existed between energy and matter, between the masculine and feminine, and between the individual and the community or tribe."
Katherine Glenday | Exhibition notes
"This is no ordinary exhibition. It begs an opening of mind, an embrace of sensory and of human interconnectedness; and a paying of homage to the individual voices of the many artists who make up this choir. It is a choir that sings an arresting and unusual song. It is a song that gains complexity and interest because of unison. Alone the voices are each unique and interesting. Together they gather the force of echoes in mountain valleys; and together they create the form of the circle. For people all holding hands naturally make circles. And pebbles thrown into still lakes make circles and circles and circles. For this exhibition I like the image of the stone, the lake and the ripples. And I like the sound of the plop and the waiting stillness of the lake. . ."
From the opening address by Anne Emslie | 28 August 2006
IT IS ALL ONE WATER
A finger in a tide pool brings our shores together | Marylinn Kelly
A collaborative poem by Claire Beynon (NZ) with text contributions from Marylinn Kelly (USA), Therese Clear (USA), Pamela Morrison (NZ), Elisabeth Hanscombe (AUS), Kay McKenzie-Cooke (NZ) & Scott Odom (USA).
Porcelain sculpture by Christina Bryer (SA).
Music by Chris Tokalon (SA).
Hand dancing by Kate Alterio (NZ).
Underwater photography by Shawn Harper (USA).
Ice divers - Sam Bowser (USA) & Shawn Harper (USA).
Porcelain sculpture by Christina Bryer (SA).
Music by Chris Tokalon (SA).
Hand dancing by Kate Alterio (NZ).
Underwater photography by Shawn Harper (USA).
Ice divers - Sam Bowser (USA) & Shawn Harper (USA).
LOVE THE WATERS
(Embark on a lyrical under-ice voyage in the company of a science diver, a pteropod and a flotilla of silver and white bamboo boats. Painterly and metaphorical in its approach, LOVE THE WATERS addresses environmental and metaphysical themes in a novel and thought-provoking way. It illuminates the beauty and fragility of our world's oceans, making a subtle-yet-insistent statement re; the importance of reestablishing right relationship with our natural environment. During these times of global disruption, social change and environmental vulnerability, the arts have a key role to play as agents for peace, advocacy and transformation.
The ocean is a mighty equaliser – it wraps us around, drawing our continents together. To echo the words of Sam Keen, "Aristotle said 'Philosophy begins in wonder.' I believe it also ends in wonder. The ultimate way we relate to the world as something sacred is by renewing our sense of wonder.'
Underwater sequences were filmed beneath the ice of Explorers Cove, Antarctica - stills and film production in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Directed, produced and narrated by Claire Beynon with a collaborative text by international writers: Therese Clear (Seattle, USA), Marylinn Kelly (Pasadena, USA), Pam Morrison (Dunedin, NZ), Kay Cooke (Dunedin, NZ), Elisabeth Hanscombe (Australia), Melissa Green (Boston, USA), Scott Odom (USA) & Claire Beynon (NZ).
The ocean is a mighty equaliser – it wraps us around, drawing our continents together. To echo the words of Sam Keen, "Aristotle said 'Philosophy begins in wonder.' I believe it also ends in wonder. The ultimate way we relate to the world as something sacred is by renewing our sense of wonder.'
Underwater sequences were filmed beneath the ice of Explorers Cove, Antarctica - stills and film production in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Directed, produced and narrated by Claire Beynon with a collaborative text by international writers: Therese Clear (Seattle, USA), Marylinn Kelly (Pasadena, USA), Pam Morrison (Dunedin, NZ), Kay Cooke (Dunedin, NZ), Elisabeth Hanscombe (Australia), Melissa Green (Boston, USA), Scott Odom (USA) & Claire Beynon (NZ).
Wh-/F FUGUE
with composer Gillian Whitehead
ALL ONE WATER
ALL ONE WATER | Music composed by Gillian Whitehead (NZ) with text contributions from Marylinn Kelly (USA), Kay McKenzie-Cooke (NZ), Scott Odom (USA), Elisabeth Hanscombe (Australia), Therese Clear (USA) and Claire Beynon (NZ)
Listen to the recording HERE
NINE ARTISTS IN FIORDLAND
Waterborne residency on board the conservation yacht Breaksea Girl
Generously hosted by The Caselberg Trust | Film created by Mark Orton
The yield from this residency resulted in a group exhibition and an interdisciplinary performance at St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin (staged during the city's biennial Arts Festival week, 2009)
For more images from this residency, please visit my STUDIO page and scroll down to FATHOM