Old Yew, Cheeseburn

‘Old Yew’ was a durational event which the audience encountered as they followed a route around the large outdoor sculpture park. This event took my practice back into the ephemeral context of the landscape, shared for the first time with the audience who were also free to come and go in their own time.

The piece was made up of pre-recorded bells played through vibration speakers and the performative ‘sounding’ of trees with a found stick amplified live through a Minirig speaker on my back.  The bells (old servants’ bells from the Grange on the site) created a semi-domestic sonic and spatial context for the organic sounds of the trees.  My improvised sound-making was in response to the weather, the human and non-human beings who came and went, and the process of coming to know the site over 7 days of performance.  

My ritualised, durational performance was intended as an invitation for visitors to be curious and perhaps listen in new ways to their surroundings.

“A world of animations and vibrations, echoes and agitations, that embeds us within the densities and opacities to which a sonic sensibility may afford deeper engagement…” (LaBelle, 2018).

Cheeseburn provides a showcase for sculpture, design and art, where the public can encounter new and established work in the setting of the historic house and gardens. My site-specific durational performance took place across three open week-ends in August 2020, attended by over 3,000 people. I worked at the Grange several times in the months before the event. 

This event was supported by an Arts Council England grant.