Sense is working over time!

I have been thinking about Hichens work all day and realise the Seasons Project for me will be about the senses and not just about what we see. He listened to nature not unlike Wassily Kandinsky who listened to music, then reacted to that within their paintings.

Next Thursday I will be heading out to partake in 'Art in the Garden' when artists from East Riding Artists go to open days held by the National Garden Schemes. I am looking forward to experiencing the garden I have been assigned, which is in Walkington near Beverley. Unlike my past participations I intend to do some recordings of the background sounds and later I can refer to them along with my sketches.

That remind me of John Cage who was an American composer and artist, he is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition Silence 4’33” (four minutes and thirty three seconds). This piece was written for David Tudor the professional pianist, and at a concert hall in Woodstock, New York he performed Silence.

At the beginning he lifted his hands to play, and during the performance lifted his hands twice more to denote the various acts. At the end he got up and left. Not a single note was played!

The reason was to draw everyone’s attention to background noises. There is always noise: programs being shuffled, stifled coughs and general background hums.

“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.”