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Art2000 commissioned Tamsin Williams to
create Kindred Flight in the narthex of Guildford Cathedral. During
her residency she recorded memories of the Cathedral guides and
filmed two local gymnasts from Woking Gymnastic Club. The soundtrack
was made in collaboration with sound artist Lewis Williams.
Williams interviewed the Cathedral’s
guides, asking them what their most memorable flight in an aeroplane
was, and whether they could describe the first time they flew in
one. One man described aerodynamics, it is an abrupt awakening to
the Environment, a scientific language in a church. It describes
what we rely on to literally transport our bodies great distances.
Kindred Flight combines the imagined and the real. The work is inspired
by the many doves and angels ascending and descending throughout
the Cathedral. On entering the narthex a diptych of projections
is seen. In one projection a figure soars slowly up in an arc on
one side, and slowly descends on the other. She appears to pass
through the walls like a spirit. Her effortless looped movement
encourages meditation upon the audible stories of experiences of
flying in aeroplanes. The quadraphonic sound can be heard alternately,
from a lofty space above head-height, and from speakers at floor
level. ‘I’ve seen too many bits of broken aircraft in
my working life to enjoy flying really’, and other anecdotes
about the second World War follow, for example: ‘I flew up,
and apart from the pilot, obviously, there was me, six mules and
no parachute!’
Leaving the installation you walk into the nave, tall and imposing,
you look up in reverence, it could easily house an aircraft. Edward
Maufe the architect, designed Guildford Cathedral in 1932, inspired
by aircraft hangars, and created a suspended space. This is particularly
significant as the Cathedral was built during the first century
of commercial air travel.
In life we often yearn to escape, to let our imaginations fly. Now
the technology exists to take us there and see the earth from many
perspectives. Kindred Flight is a reminder of science and technology
in contrast to the mystery of spirituality and the afterlife. The
work is cyclical and speaks of life and death. It is intangible,
created with light and sound, media we cannot touch.
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