This Friday my resounding of ‘The Sculptor Speaks' will receive its first transmission at 8pm (UK time) on Resonance Extra. https://x.resonance.fm/episodes/the-sculptor-speaks This first iteration is celebrating the date of birth of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, 10th of January 1903.
The starting point for [Hepworth Resounds] was her extensive body of writings, which paved the way for SculptOr, a suite of nine pieces available as a sound object. However, I was also hoping to work with her voice as material… But I had yet to find it. When I discovered the existence of the 1961 tape ‘The Sculptor Speaks’, it made me feel like a sonic archaeologist! I spent a day at the British Library listening to digitised files: upon arrival I was allocated my own audio booth, I could listen to the audio documents, which I had pre-requested, amongst these documents was ‘The Sculptor Speaks’.
It took a few weeks to obtain the audio file of ‘The Sculptor Speaks’ from the British Library. Then time for me to approach the document and decide what I could do with the material, pondering which form this resounding could take. It was also intimidating. Besides, nurturing takes space; for me composition has always been a durational process, mostly because I need to spend a long moment with the material, I don’t want to rush nor part with it. As Hepworth says “I like to have a lot of material lying about the studio for a long time even for years so that I feel intimate with each piece”. Recently I wanted to find out more about the device used to record and the actual physical tape so I contacted the British Library. Lead Curator, Literary and Creative Recordings, Stephen Clearly provided me with some valuable information for my research. He ordered the tape and the CD created from that tape from their Yorkshire unit and sent me photographs of the original tape and box.
“We have the original 7” ‘master’ tape plus two copies (shelved at the same reference number): these are 7” and 5” diameter respectively. The copies were not made by the British Library – they were made by the British Council before we received the collection. These copy tapes have references to Finland and Bucharest, Romania, respectively, on the inner boxes. I presume these tapes were sent to British Council offices in these places. The audio file I have was made from a CD-R transfer of the analogue master, which was made in October 2000. “
Once the voice is recorded and stored it is somehow abandoned, in waiting; a sound object, which can potentially be at a later stage revisited by the artist, engaging with the material and bringing a new dimension.
The broadcast on Resonance Extra will be the first iteration: a sketch in stereo. Certain frequencies have to be reduced, I will miss the physical aspect, but it is wonderful that it is being transmitted. On her date of birth, the sculptor will speak, indeed.
Many thanks to Stephen Cleary at British Library.
Thank you to Sophie Bowness, trustee of the Hepworth Estate / DMSA, University of Brighton / Peter and Milo at Resonance FM.
#hepworthresounds
