SCREENING IN THE SUN ROOM

All images courtesy Tim Bowditch

PRESS RELEASE: WORKSHOP I / WATERFALL I

Marking the end of her residency at Kentish Town Health Centre, Kentish Town Improvement Fund are pleased to present two new films by artist-in-residence Sybella Perry supported by Arts Council England.

Continuing an interest in the experience of landscape and architectural space through the moving image, the Sterling Prize shortlisted building was the starting point for Sybella Perry's research. Looking to other models that set to reform healthcare in Britain she  drew parallels between  the new Kentish Town Health Centre building, the holistic approach of the James Wigg practice and pre-NHS pioneering medical practices. Modernist in design, such buildings were also specifically engineered to allow in a maximum amount of sunlight and fresh air into the building. The use of glass and open planning allowed  mutual observation between medical professionals and patients, whilst freeing space to facilitate group exercise activities for the local community. A strong emphasis was placed on living with a connection to nature, being outdoors and eating organically.

As a departure from her previous practice WORKSHOP I focuses on our physicality of feeling in the body as well as part of a larger body of people. It documents a collaboration initiated by the artist between two groups that use the Sun Room  at KTHC for weekly classes and rehersals. This initial workshop was arranged as the first in a potential series of meetings with members from both groups joining together for the first time to combine voice with movement, led by Carol Grimes from Sing for Joy and Anna Gillespie, Musical Moving. Both groups were founded with the intention of using music alongside physical activity to help people with Parkinsons and similar conditions find strategies in managing their speech, breath and mobility.

WATERFALL I documents the artists exploration of the landscape surrounding the Falls of Clyde, a site which inspired J.M Turner and William Wordsworth. The film allows the viewer to indirectly experience the natural landscape through the familiar image of the waterfall, often used as a stock image of tranquility in relaxation media. The soundtrack is comprised of field recordings made on location, the  white noise sound produced by the waterfall cascading fills the bandwith of all audible frequencies of vibration so other sounds are masked and inaudible. The electrical hums are the sound of the near by hydro-electric power station captured by a magnetic coil microphone which picks up the sounds of electrical fields.

Related reading and a sound recording made with Sing for Joy can be found in the FreeSpace Gallery, 1st Floor until May 2011, both films will be on permanent display in the ground floor reception from 1st April 2011.

KTHC's Dr Macgregor speaks to London Review of Books

In this article Andrew O' Hagen consults Dr Roy Macgregor about the governments plans to reform healthcare.

WORKSHOP I / WATERFALL I

 

Two films by Sybella Perry

An exhibition of related material can be found at the FreeSpace gallery, 1st Floor until May 2011

Preview film screening in the Sun Room 31st March 6-8pm with a performance from 

Sing for Joy in the Atrium

Films on permanent display in Ground Floor waiting area from 1st April 2011

Workshop 1 - Musical Moving & Sing for Joy

 

 

 

On 31st January Musical Moving and the Sing for Joy choir met for the first time to take part in the first in a potential series of workshops combining voice with movement led by Carol Grimes and Anna Gillespe. I organised the workshop outside of the health centre as we needed space to film and record sound without getting in the way too much. The film was shot on 16mm and will be shown along with the waterfall film made in Scotland at KTHC on 31st March. Thank you to my crew David Angus, Vasco Alves and Tim Bowditch for all their help and support. All production stills by Tim Bowditch.

Susan Philipsz - SURROUND ME: A Song Cycle for the City of London

 On a Sunday afternoon the City of London is dead, the Bank of England lies dormant and inpenetrable like an over-sized mausoleum. It feels like trespassing when walking down alleyways past closed Starbucks in search of the voice of Turner prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz. From the escalator to Moorgate High Walk her voice slowly becomes audible as we move up from street level, on Milk Street the repeated long draw of the violin bow reflects of the glass facade of the buildings opposite. 

The songs she sings are from 17th Century London and they belong to a secret world that seems removed from the way we live which fits the atmosphere of the city over the weekend. The songs she sings come from a time when voice was a prevalent sound on the streets of the city, so much so that the criers and callers of that period inspired the popular music composed by Thomas Ravenscroft which Philipsz lend her voice to in this comission by Artangel.

 The surround sound fills the entire volume of the open spaces, her voice follows her voice, unaccomponied, harmonising with herself in a round. She does not have an exceptionally good voice, she can sing in tune and rather high without wavering.

CORA LINN

Recently I made a trip to Scotland to make field recordings and a 16mm film of a series of waterfalls on the River Clyde an hour south of Glasgow. 

Cora Linn at 90ft is the highest waterfall in a series of three which break the course of the river in New Lanark, South Lanarkshire. Widely recognised as an area of natural beauty, the waterfalls were used as a subject in the Romantic era by William Wordsworth in the poem Composed at Cora Linn and J.M.W Turner in the painting Falls of Clyde.

Falls of Clyde - J.M.W Turner

The area is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the town of New Lanark was reformed as an experiment in Utopian - Socialism by Welsh philanthropist Robert Owen during the Industrial Revolution. The power of the water harnessed to drive cotton mills and the adjacent buildings housing mill workers and their families. Today the force of the water continues to run Bonnington Power station, the first hydro-electric power station in Scotland.

When we arrived in New Lanark it was covered in a blanket of heavy snow and resembled a winter scene the likes of I'd only ever witnessed on a Christmas card. Fortunately the falls were still roaring as I had been worried they would be frozen, putting an end to my hopes of recording their sound. We took a walk from our hotel along the path upstream to look for possible locations for the film shoot.

 

During our walk I made field recordings using bi-naural microphones to record the waterfalls and an elecro-magnetic coil to pick up the hum of the power station. The recordings will be recomposed into one track which will exist as a CD and constitute as part of the soundtrack to the film.