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The semiotics of sound, particularly the
coded languages of cinema, sound and music, are a major influence
in Duncan Whitley’s installations. The artist constructs sonic
metaphors using recordings, often recognisable as sound effects
from film, which are unique to the situation in which they are heard.
‘There commonly exists a dialogue in my installations between
acoustic and semiotic language: between the individual perception
of sound and its socially constructed meaning.’
The movement of sound through the space
is orchestrated through the positioning of speakers and on-site
editing to make full use of the acoustics. In this sense the architecture
of a space is incorporated into the performance of the work as well
as forming part of its content. Sound becomes sculptural.
The sound of birds in flight used
for the installation in St Peter’s Church in Brighton might
be considered to be a relatively ‘simple’ sound. Whether
the sounds have been recorded from birds in flight, or whether approximations
of these sounds have been ingeniously constructed, they are recognisable
as moving wings. With this recognition comes a myriad of metaphorical
associations: flight and freedom, flight and death, flight and a
sense of vastness, empty space or dereliction. The ghostly birds
could be doves or pigeons, birds of the same species, whose different
names carry weighty but opposing symbolism. While the dove is a
symbol of peace and freedom, the pigeon is associated with social
degradation and physical dereliction. In the same installation,
the peal of bells which rings down the aisle and moves towards the
altar emphasises the ideology which lies behind the space itself.
The tolling of church bells drifting above the rooftops of a town
functions as a call to worship as well as to assert the presence
of the Church. In Whitley’s piece, the bells are no longer
heard outside but are contained within the walls of the Church,
occupying the voluminous negative space of the roof. Loudspeakers
mounted high up in the roof use the building’s distinctive
acoustics, encouraging the viewer to move around and experience
the space. Churches have their own unique sense of quiet. Pauses
between the sounds of bells ringing and birds taking flight make
use of this quiet, which in itself is imbued with spiritual and
psychological meanings. The pauses invite reflection, upon which
the next intervention of sound is then projected; the sounds enter
into a dialogue with each other as well as with the contemplative
silence of the Church.
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