Ian Baxter
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Sound Artist

Installations - (Sounds For) Post Hoc

In 2010, Bryan Eccleshall hand-copied onto acetate a photograph of the space created when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911. He projected that image at Bank Street Arts and oil-painted directly onto the wall. This was later boarded up. All that remains visible is a plaque recording the work.

Bank Street writer in residence, Angelina Ayers, watched this process, and wrote a poem sequence derived from the work, and the questions it raised about originality, permanence and the function of the copy. This sequence, along with newly commissioned work from local writers, was re-written by Bryan, returning the work to his hand, and projected onto the wall that conceals his earlier painting, creating an installation that examined those same issues of originality and permanence through a temporal artwork.

As sound artist in residence at Bank Street I was asked to contribute a sound element to the piece. Using a contact mic on writing surface and pen I amplified the sounds of pen nib scratches and shuffles of paper.

These sounds were fed into a delay network triggered by the rapidity of Bryan's movements on the page, producing a rich tapestry of echoes and reflections. These sounds were played both into the room that Bryan was working in and out into the street via a hidden speaker in the old coal chute at Bank Street.