The Door Installation

The Door Installation

Galleries tend to be large cavernous spaces that can blend fairly seamlessly into one another.  There may be doorways, passages, avenues…but the architecture of many gallery spaces seem to be designed for a visitor to seamlessly move from one environment into another, often gradually, often unconsciously. Referentially discrete, but essentially open.

We have talked at length about the way in which a visitor to APHASIA might experience the first few seconds of our piece. We concluded that an action - a simple action - would delineate the environment outside of APHASIA from the world within.

That action is the opening of a door, passing through the opening, and the closing of the door. A conscious decision to enter, to leave the known outside. For us, it imbues the first moments of APHASIA with a sense of demarcation from the external world, and the entry into a world of imprecise meanings and permeable memory. 

The door is red. A barrier. A full stop…what lies beyond the closed door? An alluring promise as some red is wont to suggest? A point of entry into prosperity and joy? Warmth? Attraction?

This is the first step - the negotiation of a barrier, and the acceptance of our invitation to enter.

Working with the inside/outside space of APHASIA, we have developed a quiet sound installation that exists outside of the space.  This external sound environment is in contrast to the sound within APHASIA. 

The chorale that plays outside was recorded over a two day period during our residency at Bundanon, and is built around Darragh singing céad míle fáilte - an Irish hymn that begins with the famous and much loved Irish greeting meaning 'a hundred thousand welcomes'. It is a song of solidarity that transcends its religious overtones, residing firmly in the cultural consciousness of Irish self-determination.

Céad míle fáilte romhat, a Íosa, a Íosa
Céad míle fáilte romhat, a Íosa
Céad míle fáilte romhat a Shlánaítheoir
Céad míle míle fáilte romhat,a Íosa, a Íosa

Here is but one version of the song sung by Maureen Hegarty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMpvaWgeHYw 

Our treatment of the song renders it almost unrecognisable.  Almost…

Whilst individual words are rendered practically indecipherable, it retains the colour and tonal flexibility of the vowel sounds whilst accentuating the sibilance. We also think it retains the spirit of welcome that is core to the original hymn. When the door is closed, our arrangement of céad míle fáilte can no longer be heard.  It exists only in the memory as the viewer is immersed in a new sound world and the eye is drawn towards the looming tape mass - all 43 kilometres of it. 

Here is an excerpt of our version:

Into a new domain, where the chorale of greeting exists only in the mind, and is immediately re-interpreted with new sounds of whispers, declamations, sines and percussion. As the door is opened and closed in the same conscious action, there is a transition from one world into another.

Into APHASIA.

D&D