Throat

This artwork featured in Still Life (2007). A Meadow Arts commission.

Dating back to the early 18c “Snobs’” tunnel was designed as a route for the estate worker between their working place and the house. The idea was that they should not be seen by the owners and visitor and ‘spoil’ the perfect vistas. The sound installation Throat is designed in surround-sound to be experienced as an auditory journey while passing through the tunnel. We can hear the voice of an old woman uttering basic phonetic sounds, like a child learning to speak. This collision of an old voice nearing the last breath and the childlike utterances creates a haunting space between silence and words. In this emotional resonance are all the words that might have been spoken by voices now stilled.

Image: Daphne Wright, Throat, surround sound installation, installation view of Snobs’ tunnel, Still Life, Hanbury Hall, 2007. Image courtesy Elizabeth Hanbury. 

 

About the artist

Daphne Wright

Daphne Wright exhibited in House of Beasts, Attingham Park, 2012, and Still Life, Hanbury Hall, 2007.