Lüsenen… sound installation, Gloucester Cathedral

Lüsenen… sound installation, Gloucester Cathedral

Over the last few weeks I have visited the crypt…each time noticing more qualities in the different spaces.

Simon and I have been listening to a few recordings, randomly selected.

Elle singing into the font in the second chamber (amazing reverb!)…a recording of my heart beating (bit scary:-)) and as we were listening ideas started to develop…to create and layer rhythms…to have silences.

As I am writing this we are in the final preparation stage for this sound-installation…

Sound-Installation in the Crypt of Gloucester Cathedral

October 31st, 1st& 2nd November 2019, 6-9pm

Each chamber in the crypt of Gloucester Cathedral has unique acoustic qualities.

Ann-Margreth Bohl sculptor and installation artist https://www.annmargrethbohl.com/about/

is collaborating with a team of musicians/ composer/ sound designer and a sound engineer to discover, record and transform sound qualities discovered in the crypt culminating in a sound-installation.

Eleanor Holliday https://naturalvoice.net/practitioner/eleanorholliday

Simon McCorry https://www.simonmccorry.com/home

Sid Wells https://www.thesoundagency.com/team/

Through several visits to the chambers…singing, playing the cello and recording some of the crypts resonance a library of sounds has been created by holding on to acoustic surprises and treasures found.

Over the coming months this collection is revisited and edited to form abstract sound compositions, installed in the crypt.

The visitors to ‘Lüsenen’ are invited to listen and connect with the crypt in unexpected ways.

As participants move close or further away the sounds naturally change, creating a individual experience for everyone.

Each chamber will house battery run speakers emitting sound.

‘Lüsenen’ / to listen/ middle high German spoken 1050 and 1350

Foundations of crypt at Gloucester Cathedral were laid in 1058

Holocene

Holocene

Ann-Margreth Bohl’s sculpture Holocene, at the RHS Show Garden, Chatsworth House, 6-10 June 2018.

Visitors to this year’s Royal Horticultural Society Show Garden at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, will witness a highly unusual event.

A monumental stone sculpture, which will be on display in the garden, is similar to Stonehenge and other ancient sites that are lit up on particular days of the year: it is precisely aligned with the movements of the sun. At an exact moment, 4.30PM on Saturday 9 June, the shadows cast by the sun will fit perfectly with outlines of shadows that are carved into the stone.

The sculpture, which is named Holocene after the current geological epoch, takes the form of a series of large sandstone blocks, which come from the Chatsworth estate. Like a large sundial, the blocks cast a complex pattern of shadows at different times of day, meaning that the work repays spending time with and revisiting. Some of the blocks also have carved into them, in deep relief, the outline of the shadows that will be falling on them at a precise moment of time: this has been worked out exactly using computer modelling.

The creator of Holocene is Stroud-based sculptor Ann-Margreth Bohl, working with digital designer Dan Hughes McGrail and stone carver Danny Evans. Much of Ann-Margreth’s previous work, which includes previous commissions for the RHS and the National Memorial Arboretum, has also explored themes of light and shadow, change and the passing of time.

By using stone from the Chatsworth estate, Holocene’s carbon footprint is kept to a minimum. The work in a sense comes from the Derbyshire landscape (where quarrying has historically been an important industry), and it is due to return to it: after the blocks have been displayed in the RHS Show Garden, they will stay on the Chatsworth estate.

Will the shadows really ‘fit’ at the predicted time? Visitors will have to come and find out.

Further information

Holocene can be seen at the RHS Show Garden, Chatsworth House, 6-10 June 2018

Written by Matt Shinn