terrasong / 2023
sound sculpture
audio︎
video︎ (coming soon)
eight clay vessels (made by Ajay Manthripragada)
with microphone feedback played on speakers and cassette tape players
"terrasong" was created with the generous support of The American Academy in Rome.
‘terrasong’ starts from the elemental material of clay. The work develops from an interest in architectural terra cotta with ambiguous functions, such as medieval ceramic resonators used to amplify singing. The sculpture shapes and excavates sounds from wheel-thrown clay objects and plays them back on magnetic tape, a pliant and versatile material which can be cut and assembled like clay. These sounds are amplified with the unfired vessels from which they came, creating a sonorous world that is mimetic and self-similar, yet always changing.