Usually I unplug and pack when I leave, so it was weird leaving the gallery with my work still on, hearing the sound in the distance.
Last time I visited the Hepworth Wakefield Museum was July 2017. In October 2017, I collected footage on the beach in St Ives, not knowing this would form the backbone for the visuals of ‘The Sculptor Speaks’. What an absolute treat to be included in the exhibition ‘Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life’. I enjoyed visiting the exhibition, so dense I visited twice.
Exhibiting the work within Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures brought some constraints - for instance the image had to be quite high on the wall - but also rewards, as one could navigate between her sculptures and my audiovisual piece. Particularly Hepworth’s Spring with its array of strings was resonating with the geometric line being slowly drawn on the wall. The acoustic of the room - gallery 1 - was vast, therefore very reverberant. From the other galleries, we could hear in the distance her voice, as a floating entity. I could envisage how the piece could be developed for multi-speaker diffusion, so I could isolate Hepworth’s voice in the room and create movement of voice.
Hepworth’ s voice was resonating in her own space.
You can also view my piece online here
