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PHIL DADSON
Ancient Worlds Gallery
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The Ancient Worlds gallery explores ancient civilisations and cultures from throughout the world, with a special focus on Ancient Egypt.
Tongues of the Relics
Track 7 length 8:00
An interest in antiquity, archaeology and stone tool culture led Phil Dadson to the Ancient Worlds gallery. But he was also attracted by this small gallery’s quiet and meditative atmosphere.
To produce the sounds he has used in his composition, Dadson selected materials that would allude directly or laterally to the Ancient Worlds collection. These included Palaeolithic flint implements of his own, and broken fragments of a 4000-year-old Egyptian alabaster plate.
The piece is inspired and informed by the objects you will see on display, but also refers to the unique acoustic character of the gallery itself. In fact, most of the primary audio material – the sounds from which Dadson’s composition is assembled – was recorded within the gallery’s walls. Listen to this piece and you are hearing an interpretation, not only of the objects in the collection, but also of the gallery architecture.
As part of his process, Phil Dadson wrote an invocation to visitors which informed his interpretation:
Tongues of the relics
Hey You, with ears, what’s with these four walls, this four walled place,
this space, a cave, a cavern, a chamber, a casket, a coffin, to carry you off and away,
a capsule, encasing time, in case in time, the case is closed,
an open and closed case, a coffin, in fact, a time capsule,
a trunk of treasure, a pleasure of junk,
mysterious measure this mystery of history,
this cavern, this cave, this chamber of relics,
a casket of remains, adornments of life, companions of death,
conceived of nature, designed in minds, fashioned by hands,
used in need until needs end beneath the earth, friends,
of worms and germs that eat dead flesh and leave the bones
garnished with life’s relics of the past, of past lives.
Now cast your eyes around these walls and spot the holes that hold the souls
of those that protect the bits and bobs behind glass, spirit holes
for souls, companions of relics that lines these shelves,
lines drawn from earth and clay, stone and bone,
stone stained with blood and brain, seed of our first faces,
voices ingrained by hands deft fashion,
deafly awaiting deaths awakening,
The lid is off. The lid is off, the tongues of the relics are loose.
The Chancay sheila shouts across a yawning chasm,
Ta-Sedgemet listens with her inner ear.
Lungs and tongues of the relics are loose!
Cut loose, tongues and lungs!
Phil Dadson
About the Artist
The work of intermedia artist and experimental composer Phil Dadson has been resonating throughout the international music and art worlds since the early 1970s. His sound-based artworks take many forms: from performances and videos to invented musical instruments, sound compositions and installations. A founding member of Scratch Orchestra in London, Dadson launched rhythm/performance group From Scratch in 1974, which subsequently performed to wide acclaim in New Zealand and overseas. Former senior lecturer and head of Intermedia at Auckland's Elam Art School, Dadson is also an award-winning film maker. During his 2003 Artist Fellowship in Antarctica, he travelled with scientists to take video and sound recordings in the remote dry valleys. In 2001, Dadson received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award, and in 2005 he was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 2007 he under took an artist residency in India, and more recently has co-authored a guide to building slap tube instruments.
Phil Dadson website
Track Credits
Performed and produced by Phil Dadson. |
