viv corringham: shadow-walks
emerging aritst series: third floor atrium gallery
November 12, 2005- January 22, 2006
Viv Corringham, an artist living and working in both London and Rochester, Minnesota, has developed a unique methodology that informs her processes and involves three major activities: walking (many times with others), listening and improvised singing.
Corringham, trained as a vocalist, developed interest in environmental sound—the everyday or common sounds that we usually disregard or attempt to block out—sounds that are at times considered “pollution”. Through focused attention, Corringham found that these easy-to-ignore sounds have the capacity to become interesting and intriguingly complex. Corringham stated, ”I think it was James Joyce who said that places remember events, and I found that idea very interesting—that everything that happens leaves traces that we might be able to sense. I wondered if it was only the large events that we call history that places remember, or if they also remember the small events of ordinary lives. If a person throughout a lifetime walks through certain places over and over again, along the same route, does that ground retain traces of that person’s personal history and memories?”
This question led Corringham to the projects she titles Shadow-walks. These are attempts to make a person’s traces—their shadows—audible. The process of a shadow-walk is reasonably straightforward: Corringham requests to be taken on a special walk with an individual, a walk that has been repeated many times and has distinct meaning or significance for that person. While walking together, Corringham records the activities, conversations, and secondary (environmental) sounds. Corringham then repeats the same walk on her own, attempting to sense her previous companion’s presence on the now solitary walk and to make the memory of shared time and experience audible through singing. This improvised sound becomes the ghost of the memories and feelings of that distinct location. In addition to capturing environmental sounds, Corringham collects mundane objects she finds on the street while walking. These items are displayed in the gallery as a certain evidence. Just as the recording of “background noise” enhances its importance, so does the collecting and presenting of found objects. The once easily forgettable sounds and materials are invited into the foreground, allowing for consideration of their existence as traces that others left behind, perhaps allowing the environment to remember that they were there.