CHS students to take Silver Tank Stories on the road

Cobar High School students are taking their Silver Tank Stories on the road and will feature in an exhibition at the Outback Arts Gallery in Coonamble from next week.

Their Silver Tank Stories sound installation weaves together original student compositions, interviews and recorded environmental sounds to capture the tales of the old Silver Tank into an 18-minute sound installation.

The “Silver Tank”, as it’s known to locals, sits on top of the hill on the outskirts of the town.

The tank was converted into the Cobar Sound Chapel (finished in April 2022), a bold creation by renowned composer and sound artist Georges Lentz in collaboration with Pritzker-Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt.

The Sound Chapel functions as the permanent home of Lentz’s digital surround-sound composition String Quartet(s), a vast piece of sound art inspired by the outback landscape and its night skies.

In August 2022, students at Cobar High School engaged in a week-long workshop facilitated by composer Elizabeth Jigalin and music teacher Laura Andrew.

As part of the workshop, students recorded the stories from five local community members, documenting their memories of the Silver Tank.

Locals in Cobar remember the Silver Tank with both water and without –“it became a meeting place for picnics, fossicking, rabbit catching and riding bikes”.

Inspired by the stories and their own musical sketches, students composed and performed original works that evoke the mood of each story told by local community members. Students also created field recordings to be included in the sound installation, generating compelling sound effects to accompany the stories.

Their work has been arranged into a sound installation that celebrates community, creativity and history through sound.

The exhibition runs for a month.