The Distance Between
Stainless steel band 335mm x 20000mm, 9x mild steel stands, transducers, audio and video components
The Distance Between is a sound installation constructed of a long horizon of metal activated by the sounds of two remote beaches. One beach St Ninian’s in the Shetlands which is a tombolo and the other beach being Meybille bay which is on the West Coast of the South Island. The sounds roll along the band and meet at the apex
This is a musing on what it is to travel vast distances from a homeland to a new island. The seed of this work comes from the journey my family/ancestors took from the Shetlands to the West Coast of NZ. A journey between two islands a whole world away.
The waters wash over us, they pull us apart, we cling to the shore and strike off into the hinterlands. The steep, fierce pull of the waves on the shores pebbles, the gentle rhythm of a double shore lap of the tombolo. Sometimes we don’t know where we are going but we just know we can’t stay. The Distance Between deals with themes of migration, what it is to leave an island homeland set sail for a new place, and uncertainty.
I must extend a big thanks to:
Renzo Spiteri for the Shetland sounds. https://www.renzospiteri.com/
Nachikethas MJ for the images of the Shetlands used in the projections. https://notesfromdreams.com/author/nachikethasmj/
This is the video component of the work and it’s reflection captured in the steel band as the steel resonated with the sound of the beach. The sound component of this clip comes from my performance on the opening night.