Forest

Volume IV
Beaconsfield Artworks, Karl Burke, Mark Dean, Bruce Gilbert, Leafcutter John, Fergus Kelly & David Lacey, Pan sonic,
Bob and Roberta Smith, DJ Tendraw, Nina Hynes

Curated by David Crawforth

Performances:

6-8pm Thursday 6th September: Launch Night
Bruce Gilbert
Nina Hynes
Fergus Kelly & David Lacey
DJ Tendraw

8 - 9:30pm Friday 14th September: Dublin Culture Night 2007
Bob & Roberta Smith and the Apathy Band
Karl Burke

Sunday 16th September 8pm @ The Sugar Club
Pan Sonic
Tickets €20 (€12.50 concessions)
available from www.tickets.ie, City Discs Temple Bar, and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios

Exhibition continues until 16th September 2006

Sound… its  presence emphasised by a visible absence, always there but not always heard, a constant underlayer of life.

Temple Bar Gallery and Studios presents Forest (Volume IV) the fourth  in a series of annual exhibitions  exploring the place and potential of sound in art. Over the previous three exhibitions Volume has showcased some of the most innovative developments in sound art  taking place in and outside  Ireland . This year's exhibition is curated by London artist and curator David Crawforth. His concept is to create  a metaphorical forest, an environment with tendrils of connectivity between  individual works and  live events. ‘The forest  is filled with mimetic gestures. It is secondary and not fully formed…new growth in the form of performances compositions and interventions will take place over the life span of Forest , creating a layered and temporal habitat.' The audience in entering the forest must do so with a willingness to explore  and to reflect on the varied ‘forest' sounds. They may even do so with a degree of trepidation and,  for those who do ‘go down to the woods' the  unexpected may very well occur….

For the duration of the show, a diverse range of audio works will be installed in the gallery space, with some sculptural and visual interventions.

Beaconsfield Artworks set the scene by constructing a forest floor of mulch with substrata of cardboard. They define its perimeter with monotone paint layers, and its core with primeval electronic sound.

Leafcutter John uses microphone pick-ups under the forest floor that record movement above and relay this information to a software driven instrument that can record, process live and reintroduce sound as well as triggering more complex layers of composition. The sound is intended to grow as well as reflect what is happening in the forest over its limited lifespan.

Mark Dean dangles a carrot for the politically correct to pick at – a proposition - made through a reggae version of Crimson & Clover combined with Marcus Garvey's red, black and green Pan-African flag - that we are all Africans irrespective of the colour of our skin.

Bruce Gilbert thrives in the realm of the unexpected. His objects are precise but not precious, minimal assemblages that reflect his attitude to get inside sound and push it to destruction.

Towards the end of the exhibition Bob & Roberta Smith will compose a text that will be painted at the entrance to the forest – this will appear near the end of the exhibitions run, and reflect human intervention in its most basic form – rights of ownership.

A number of live events will take place in the gallery space on the launch night of the 6th September, featuring performances by Bruce Gilbert and DJ Tendraw, while Dublin improvisers Fergus Kelly (invented instruments) and David Lacey (percussion/electronics) will be performing in response to the theme of the forest, as will composer/performer Nina Hynes.

Live turntables and circuit bent noise will be produced by one of the UK 's most active circuit bent artists, DJ Tendraw. Just like Ash and his friends in Sam Reimi's classic cult-horror film The Evil Dead , DJ Tendraw will summon the evil spirits from the woods and then drive them back to hell with a barrage of circuit bent witchery and slapstick tomfoolery.

Ash: What's the matter with you? Did something in the woods do this to you?

Cheryl: No, it's the woods themselves, they're alive Ashley..the trees..they're alive

-The Evil Dead, 1983 (prod.1980), Sam M. Reimi

Bruce Gilbert will be performing an improvisation using analogue and digital sound-modifying devices. Parts of the performance will be dependent on the physical and acoustic qualities of the performing area. Be warned some of the sounds may be of an extreme or loud nature .

Nina Hynes makes music and art in many genres. She has released three albums and collaborated with experimental artists such as Hector Zazou  and Harold Budd. However, Hynes is mostly celebrated for her indie pop songs and music with her band The Husbands. She has taken part in a wide variety of art projects, exhibitions, performances and collaborations. What interests her most is the use of sound in response to an atmosphere, or to create an atmosphere.

On the evening of Friday 14 th September, as part of Dublin Culture Night, Bob & Roberta Smith and the Apathy Band invite anyone who can play a non-chordal instrument to join their improvised ensemble (Strictly no guitars). Karl Him will also be performing his recent sound work, Forest Project . This audio work is influenced by the unique charter of a particular place, in this case a forest. This performance will use sounds informed and influenced by these wooded places – manipulated field recordings along with Laptop, improvised electronics and instruments.

The final event, at the Sugar Club on Sunday 16 th September, is a concert by legendary electronic duo, Pan sonic . Their music is a fusion of influences, merging the harsh and pure sounds of Industrial techno with the more subdued instrumental sound-scapes of reggae and dub. The end result is a powerful low frequency visceral emission, a montage made up of two counter cultures that forms a new electronic whole - precise, loud, minimal but warm and inspirational too. 

All three of these live events marking the beginning, middle and end of the exhibition, are intended to activate the soul of the project, to celebrate the forests existence and to lament its demise.

Forest, Volume IV is curated by David Crawforth, visual artist, curator and director of Beaconsfield art space in London.

Press Contact: Rayne Booth - Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
t. + 353 1 671 0073 e. press@templebargallery.com