passages, a response

passages, a response brings together five postgraduate composers from Te Kōkī, the New Zealand School of Music. Jesse Austin-Stewart, Sharyn Brand, Marcus Jackson, Jimi Wilson and Jack Woodbury will each respond to the exhibition Passages, situating their own compositional work within the spaces occupied by Luke Fowler, Florian Hecker and Susan Philipsz.

passages, a response will follow a similar trajectory to Passages’ multi-floored sequence, whereby each of the artists' sound works is experienced one by one. During the night, the sound works in the exhibition will be suspended and local composers’ works will be performed within the Adam Art Gallery. The audience is invited to explore the building and each composer's works as the concert progresses. Austin-Stewart and Jackson’s pre-recorded choral work the builders of this faith rejected us, positions the audience within an extended dodecaphonic speaker array, within which they are free to explore the gallery’s architecture. By comparison, Brand and Wilson each index the influence and sonic contributions of historical composers through their work, translating the former composers' works into series of multi-channel pieces and sonic collages. Wilson’s work is audio-visual, evoking Luke Fowler’s studies of the music of Martin Bartlett and Christian Wolff through film. Finally, Woodbury spatialises a series of soundscapes through his own speaker setup which is based on Florian Hecker’s speaker array, in order to consider his work through Hecker’s spatial lens.

This event is the first of two responsive performances organised in association with Te Kōki. The second performance will take place at Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi on Saturday 13 April, 6pm.

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