‘Scorched Silence(Memory Marking)‘

Collective Installation 2023

(Audio) ‘Reverberated; I attempt to call a memory’ Britney Saywell 2023

Key Artist: Britney Saywell.

Responsive Artists: Amarni Reynolds-Hatem, Emily Wharekura, Makisi Tuiasosopo, Nathan Sua, and Sama Oloapu.

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Materials:

The red dust and clay formations are derived from a previous wet clay installation ‘The Silence Sings’ 2022 Britney Saywell. Over the last seven months, the clay has been dried and placed through a bisk firing in a kiln at 700℃. Dried reeds have also followed the clay resulting in a small delicate ash structure. Two clay bowls have become vessels in the bisk process as the clay took on a porous and dry form.

Digital equipment releases sound into space. ‘Reverberated; I attempt to call a memory,’ 2023 supportive audio work. A repetitive reverberated sound of the original landscape from which the clay has been collected. Capturing sounds of birds, frogs, and the wind. The work attempts to verbalize the current dry state of the clay and its past wet form.

“I can’t see! The dust is in my eyes”

Expressed Nathan Sua.

Each artist in the space has been asked to record the cracks appearing in Wetland sands. This instruction was supported by a shared conjectural recording -a photograph. Responsive making remained at the core of the 2-hour installation process. Each artist brought their own markings and their own memory related to the conjectured recording presented to them.

‘Scorched Silence’ 2023 refers to the processing and the memory of the collected clay.  Red pigment and a loose line between compressed clay and dust provided a set of limitations. The proximity to a dust form draws on concepts of making and decaying. Pulling from material opportunity.  Pushing toward an experience of the wetland. The ability that material play has on an individual allows for a wider experience of land such as the wetland.