Overview, Images

Serpent Songs / Windshadows

Gerard Crewdson

20 Jun–7 Jul 2018

For SOUND SERIES 2018, Gerard Crewdson presented site-specific acoustic sound sculptures. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a natural horn, nearly 5 metres long, made from a single hollow tube (like a didgeridoo) and played with a mouthpiece (like a Swiss alphorn). The horn resembled a ‘serpent’ – not only the creature – but also the instrument of that name which was the predecessor of the modern-day tuba.

Low brass instruments have traditionally been associated with raising the voices of the dead in both Western and non-Western cultures. These are the ‘serpent songs’ of the title but also the ‘windshadows’ – a compound word taken from a Paul Celan poem, Weiss Und Leicht / White and Light. This might be read as a wind of shades, of ghosts, blowing over the genocidal landscape of post WWII Europe.

Blindside stands upon stolen, never ceded Wurundjeri land – a genocidal landscape with its own wind of shades, of ghosts, of voices lost or never heard. Crewdson's other sound sculptures – a ‘Rice Wheel’ and ‘Galileo Drum’ – generate sound through gravity-produced falling motion, thereby also acknowledging the Wurundjeri ground upon which the gallery and surrounding city, stand.

Onsite, Exhibition, Performance, Publication, Sound Series, Co-Presented
Overview

For Sound Series 2018, Gerard Crewdson presents site-specific acoustic sound sculptures.

Opening + Performance: 21 Jun 2018, 8am–10am
Improvised Music + Performance: 22 Jun 2018, 8am–10am
Improvised Music + Performance: 23 Jun 2018, 8am–10am
Daily Performance: 26 Jun 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 27 Jun 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 28 Jun 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 29 Jun 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 30 Jun 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 5 Jul 2018, 6am–7am
Daily Performance: 6 Jul 2018, 6am–7am
Closing Performance: 7 Jul 2018, 4am–6am

This program takes place on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - this land is stolen land. We pay respects to Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, to the Elders from other communities and to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might encounter or participate in the program.

Opening Performance by Gerard Crewdson / Jeff Henderson / Dale Gorfinkel

Opening Night, Thursday 21 June, 6–8pm

Gerard Crewdson creates a live sound track for TERRIBILITA, a visual narrative from Cinema of the Poor. Gerard will play a tenor trombone, soprano trombone and other acoustic noise-makers.

Improvised Music and Performance
Friday 22 June, 6-8pm: Gerard Crewdson / Jeff Henderson / Dale Gorfinkel / Sage Pbbt / Adam Simmons

Saturday 23 June, 6-8pm: Gerard Crewdson / Jeff Henderson / Nat Grant / Sean Baxter / Jenny Ruth Barnes / The Charles Ives Singers

Daily Performances by Gerard Crewdson: 4-5pm
Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 June, + Thursday 5 and Friday 6 July

Closing Performance
Saturday 7 July, 2-4pm: Gerard Crewdson / Antony Riddell / Dale Gorfinkel / Peter Farrar

Extended Performance Program arranged by Jeff Henderson, Audio Foundation New Zealand in partnership with Liquid Architecture.

Liquid Architecture is an Australian organisation for artists working with sound. LA investigates the sounds themselves, but also the ideas communicated about, and the meaning of, sound and listening.

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The Nicholas Building

Room 14, Level 7, 37 Swanston Street

Melbourne, Victoria, 3000

Wednesday – Saturday, 12-6pm
Closed on public holidays
(+61) 3 9650 0093
info@blindside.org.au

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Working on unceded sovereign land of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, Blindside pays respect to Elders, past, present and emerging.


PATAGORANG FOUNDATION

Working on unceded sovereign land of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, Blindside pays respect to Elders, past, present and emerging.