Gravitational mass orbits ephemera; the sound of the sea's breaking waves emanates from a violin f-hole cut through the canter of this monumental anvil.
Object installed for the Vancouver Biennale, 2018 - 2020
Steel, paint, solar panel, electronics, sound of the ocean
25 x 13 x 9 feet
Acoustic Anvil: A Small Weight to Forge the Sea is the physical convergence of both real and imagined histories, relationships and resonances that mark this seemingly silent site. The Anvil's form was refined over three thousand years of hot hammered iron; patterns demanded by industry and the movement or people: swords, shears, shoes. The physical heft of an enormous anvil recalls the geometry of ship hulls and naval mooring bollards. Cut through the anvil's outwardly solid core is a violin’s f-hole which transforms this familiar object into something more ambiguous. It becomes a tool-turned-instrument where the rolling sound of the sea distinctively resonates from its solid mass. Listening to the spiral opening recalls the wonder of turning a conch shell to ones ear - an invitation to come closer, to experience a gravitational mass in relation to tides, to the body and to a the delicate ephemera of whispered sound.
Object installed for the Vancouver Biennale, 2018 - 2020
Steel, paint, solar panel, electronics, sound of the ocean
25 x 13 x 9 feet
This project was made possible by George Third and Son steel fabricators (Burnaby, BC) and Arsenal Contemporary (Montreal, Toronto, New York).