30
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
May – June 2016
FESTIVAL
The Stone Tapes MARY STEVENS DISCUSSES AUGUSTINE LEUDAR’S SOUND INSTALLATION ‘THE STONE TAPES’, WHICH WAS COMMISSIONED FOR THE 2016 ULSTER UNIVERSITY FESTIVAL OF ART AND DESIGN AND LOCATED AT THE GIANT’S RING, BELFAST.
Augustine Leudar, The Stone Tapes, installation shot; photo by Paul Moane
THE Ulster University Festival of Art and Design 2016 comprised a variety of multi disciplinary events, art exhibitions, talks and workshops across Belfast, Derry-Londonderry, Ballycastle and Coleraine. Curator Sarah Tuck aimed to “provide a space within which different perspectives and different intellectual and artistic trajectories meet, generate new ideas and new ways of engaging with the world”. A focus on socially engaged projects prevailed, with other events like ‘Making Conversations’ in association with Aberrant Architecture and Spectrum Centre, Shankill on Wednesday 9 March, which featured a pop-up music booth where participants could record their own 7-inch vinyl record. Augustine Leudar’s single night sound installation event, The Stone Tapes, took place on the evening of Wednesday 9 March 2016 at the Giant’s Ring in Belfast. The project was a collaboration between curator of the 2016 Ulster University Festival of Art and Design, Sarah Tuck, the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (BCDA) and Augustine Leudar. Taking place around the ancient site in south Belfast, the event was intended to initiate a sense of community stewardship through the inclusion of community volunteers and students who assisted visitors on the night. Community workers Peter Morgan Barnes, Sheelagh Colclough and Amy Sidiropoulos worked with the BCDA to integrate the project with the local area. Augustine Leudar is a sound artist who has worked on projects nationally and internationally, exhibiting at the National Gallery of the Czech Republic as well as in Florence, Peru and Glastonbury. In 2010 he created the “largest walk-through multi- channel sound installation in the world” at the Eden Project in Cornwall. He specialises in immersive sound environments that stimulate the participant’s imagination. Pre-recorded sounds from far-flung places such the Amazon rainforest make up the body of Leudar’s work, imbuing it with an ambient sense of exploration and intrigue. Leudar is also the artistic director of production company Magik Door, who produce 3D sound environments. The project at the Giant’s Ring began to evolve following conversations between Leudar and Tuck at
The Giant’s Ring sits close to Shaw’s Bridge in the south of the city. It is an awe-inspiring landscape and a textbook example of a ‘henge’ monument, built around 2700 BC during the Neolithic period. The ambient noises came from eight speakers placed in a circle at the edges of the ring. Visitors wander through this ancient space, noise coming form all directions in a half-light, creating the most surreal, otherworldly experience. The combination of the Giant’s Ring and its unique history, combined with the ultra modern sound design creates, as Lauder describes, something new. “Whilst there was some historic and acoustic research informing the piece, on the creative side it’s mostly subconscious. However, afterwards something occurred to me. [T]he event has been presented almost as a ‘recreation of the past’.” Around 600 participants attended the one night only ‘event’, although it feels like an inappropriate term to describe what happened there. As a participant, it felt more like a gathering, to remind us what a community could do when they came together in ancient times and what they can still do today. The Ballynafeigh Community Development Association disseminated the information and acted as guardians of the site throughout the project. The Stone Tapes drew attention to the natural history of our city at a time when urbanisation often feels overwhelming. The Giant’s Ring is very accessible, yet few (myself included) visit it regularly. What I took away from the event was the wonder, the excitement and the feeling of ‘gathering’ that I experienced. It felt like an ancient ritual brought about by contemporary technology. Leudar notes that mythology often plays a part in his work, but this is the most ancient site at which he has worked. The installation seemed suited to the magic of the Giant’s Ring. Leudar’s technology and composition colludes with the setting to evoke an almost mythological landscape. The Stone Tapes has drawn attention to our history and made us re-imagine it within the context of today’s communities. Through their participation, the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association have responded to an ambitious project that embraces the fabric of their home. Leudar stated that “the response from the public has been phenomenal, from local farmers to archaeologists, artists to dog walkers, kids to old folk who came up with their walking sticks”. People engaged with the project because it involved and intrigued them. The Giant’s Ring belongs to the community of Belfast and has done so for 4,000 years. Augustine Leudar’s work for the Ulster University Festival of Art and Design, and the community created through the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association, have breathed a whisper of new life into this treasured ancient corner of our land. As we walked back down the lane after this ethereal experience, there was the feeling that we had witnessed something fleeting and beautiful. Tonight at the Giant’s Ring you won’t find a new age sound installation. This is the beauty and the uniqueness of projects such as this.
a time when he was travelling internationally working on other projects and recordings in South America. Participants were advised to dress warmly when visiting The Stone Tapes and I was unsure about what to expect at the end of the short journey through Belfast. We arrived at the complementary buses feeling the nervous expectation experienced when confronted with the unknown. We were dropped off at a small lane at the bottom of a field and walked up to the ancient site, emerging into one of the most geographically generous public artworks I’ve seen. Measuring a massive 6.9 acres in area and surrounded by an 11ft-high bank, the scale of the installation site alone is impressive. At 7pm on a weekday evening the site was quiet and invoked a hushed reverence from those of us arriving to witness the event. The sun was setting, the trees silhouetted against a pale rose sky. The sound was already playing, although it was not overwhelming. We were encouraged to walk around the perimeter of the ring, where little lanterns guided the way, facilitated by stewards from the community groups. It felt as though Mary Stevens is a writer based in Belfast. we had simultaneously gone back in time and into the future, as the Notes sound activated the imagination. 1. https://www.ulster.ac.uk/festivalartdes/about After circling the outside, we walked down into the middle. The 2. augustineleudar.com 3. http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Giants-Ring-Belfast-P2791 sound immediately became louder, the edges of the ring acting as 4. Augustine Leudar, March 2016 amplifiers to direct the sound and the participants into the centre of 5. http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Giants-Ring-Belfast-P2791 6. Augustine Leudar, March 2016 the space where the ancient stone passage tomb sits. This stone tomb is thought to be more than 4,000 years old. There was a very real sense of being directed, both by the ancient monument and by the various movements of Leudar’s music. We gathered unconsciously as a group in the centre, the sense of anticipation and expectation building. Rather than following a narrative, however, the installation is simply experiential. For Leudar, this gathering notion is a natural human impulse. “It’s like that with culture… something to do with people gathering and transcending identity, time and space. I felt the installation was occupying that gap.”