BROKEN VOICES/LOST IN SPACE/
a dark place, full of light
Venice is a place I know well. Its a place to get lost in, a place that breaks up your thoughts and your imagination. The campos are like little islands and the streets that connect them, like dry canals. The only mechanical sounds you hear are the vaporetti on the canals, or the coffee machines in the cafes. Like any city, it takes time to join up all the bits. Its a revelation when you discover this campo is next to that bridge and this church next to that bar. I have sat at the red cafe in Campo Santa Margherita on every visit; stood on the Accademia bridge and watched the sunset and the sunrise. Whenever I look at a map, I get lost.
In Broken voices I am working in a medium I know very little about. However, I have two extraordinary guides who have agreed to accompany and collaborate with me, on this adventure, the composer Ian Dearden and the singer Linda Hirst. This journey is only made possible by the energy and enthusiasm of the curator and project manager Clare Fitzpatrick.
Like all my projects I have no idea where I am going or how to get there. I am mapping as I go along. Making marks and erasing with equal measure. So, I will make mistakes, take wrong turns, and for a while get completely lost. This I expect. Its the way that I work, it drives curators crazy and makes writing a press release almost impossible. Even my starting point changes.
The human voice fascinates me. Perhaps because I know I can never sing sweetly, I am hypnotised by those that can. I would swop lives with a great singer anytime. Broken voices is an attempt to make a work where the voice is treated like raw material, not as a means to communicate intention or meaning.
Broken Voices is also more than a little inspired by Venice it is, in a sense also a kind of portrait of the city; a dark place, full of light.
