(im)Material Witness
(2023)
Dilston Grove, Southwark Park Galleries, London
(im)Material Witness is an installation work exploring transference of meaning across time through sound and matter. Taking sound as found object and considering forms of non- human historical testimony, the work seeks to obfuscate and entwine traditionally linear temporal narratives in favour of a shifting, imbricated view. The piece aims to draw attention to sound’s ability to blur the lines of time, to appear, disappear and reappear irrespective of any assumed temporal grounding. Sound is an enmeshed part of our happenings and histories, and when re-sounded at a later date brings with it these past meanings whilst simultaneously adopting the meanings of the present. Thus, these happenings are morphed and layered, and new knowledge is generated in the moment of sounding. Sound can cross moments, intersect timelines and obscure boundaries. Sea glass collected from the coast of North Devon is resonated by a selection of folk tunes pertaining to the same region. The glass represents a reification of archival, transformative interactions with the world which form a material history. These individual, discrete temporal indices are unified through embodiment of the sound, creating an entanglement of multiple, non-linear temporalities.