CHIMES | 2024
In collaboration with Emily Spooner
Coyote Tales Residency, Bancroft (ON)
Chimes is the culmination of two weeks of collaborative work with Emily Spooner at the Coyote Tales Residency in Bancroft, Ontario. The guiding intention for this project was to explore the intersection of our artistic practices with the creative agency of the surrounding landscape. Our process involved a daily drawing practice using ink and charcoal sourced from the property’s fire pits, alongside sessions of improvisational stop-motion animation. The resulting video brings together a selection of interactions with the rocks, waters, and vegetation of the landscape, in combination with drawings and wool sculptures.
The sound of wind chimes was a constant companion during the residency. As an instrument, these chimes rely on collaboration with the wind and so cannot be properly played without interacting with the environment around them. With this in mind, the idea of chimes became a fitting thread woven throughout our process of film making. Our intention was to make space for the landscape to have a voice in guiding our artistic explorations, rather than imposing preconceived concepts or interventions. Similarly, the word chime is also a nod to the phrase ‘to chime in,’ meaning both to join a conversation and to 'combine harmoniously.’
“Our senses are evolved extensions of touch, so when we sense something of soil or sun—seeing it, smelling it—we are in fact merging with it; one with it.”
— Steven Martyn, Sacred Gardening
