The Memory Pendulums was installed in May 2010 as part of the MEMORY FLOWS group exhibition at the Armory Gallery, Newington Armory, Sydney Olympic Park and is a project of the Centre for Media Arts Innovation, UTS. With special thanks to the Curators Sophia Kouyoumdjian, Norie Neumark and Deborah Turnbull.
For this collaborative work with Solange Kershaw we produced a motion sensitive sound Installation affected by contact and gravity, the Memory Pendulums modulate the spoken measure of a poem, written for the artwork by the Australian poet Jill Jones.
Her words flow randomly in time with the playful swinging back and forth of three diamond shaped acrylic water pendulums. Each one filled to a different capacity with a toxic blue liquid, triggering a different memory, dripping into (and polluting) the muddy waters of the Parramatta River …..
Exhibition Dates / Every weekend from 15 May 2010 to 20 June 2010
Memory is referenced in two ways within the work. Through the use of 3 liquid filled pendulums which, like controlling the mechanism of a clock, control the listening of a poem over time. If the pendulums swing uninterrupted for approximately 90 seconds the listener will hear the entire poem, which in three parts takes all three pendulums to swing. The listener’s memory must be engaged in the experience or appreciation of the poem as it is more than likely with all three pendulums swinging the three parts will be heard simultaneously. Memory is also referenced literally throughout the poem, particularly the third part titled “River as memory”.
River as memory, by Jill Jones
where waters come from
clean as that mysterious rain
you never see
a source in the rock
from sea
cloud
sea
cycling planetary urges
the shiver of ancient degrees
death moves in circles
drinks at the ground
great birds
drift
in the flow’s shadow
making channels
and ridges
in our mud memory
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