Sharonagh Montrose A Lay of the Land, 2019
Boxing, short drain pipes, gravel, batteries, solar panels and sound equipment, dimensions variable.
For many, it is all about the view! It draws the gaze outward to sky and sea, beyond the sweeping contours and internal splendour. In conceiving and making this work, I was held in thrall by the jauntiness of movement within the outline of the headland; branches and leaves, grass and rocks shifted vision constantly as they responded to light, to wind and to tides. They reminded me of musical notation where each note retains a fluidity of expression, held in sway to time and orchestration. I wondered how this coastal outline would sound if placed into music.
Composer Gisèle Hill has created a sonic composition that communicates the physical description of the coastal outline with intertwining reference to geology and topography; Treble – as defined by notes abstracted from the visual geography of the coastal landscape; Bass – as defined by the maritime chart of depth and tidal change over the last century; Syncopation – as defined by topographical landscape; Refrain – as defined by the natural coastal soundscape; Tempo – as defined by specific protuberances and depressions in the landscape at the point where land meets sea. The sonic wave form speaks to the ear and to the body in visceral communication. We often forget that sound touches more than the ear: It touches all the senses.
