Review: Tractors and Pearls
Haworth Hodgkinson performs poetry from his new book in musical settings
Syllavethy Gallery, Montgarrie
[Map]
Tractor, Bastard. Two words associated with strength, the machinery that provides
the muscle for farm work, and an expletive reserved for strong emotions. The strength
of Haworth Hodgkinson's performance lies in his genius for combining musical sound
with poetic word, and the results always seem fresh and spontaneous to my ear. With
deft movements he extracts just the right kind of sound from gong, pipe or drum
to seduce the listener, opening the heart and coaxing the rational mind willingly
into unfamiliar and often surreal landscapes.
Collaborative work between all three artists brings them together at the Syllavethy
Gallery where Heather Wilson's pictures are currently on show. As the presence of
a young child may elicit child-like behaviour from a group of adults, so the beguiling
child faces smiling at us from every wall echoed Haworth's innate mischievousness
and the playfulness underpinning Fiona Soe Paing's animated music videos.
The music and images arising from the Paing / Alexander collaboration are hard to
describe, you had to be there to know exactly, I can only say that my attention
was transfixed from beginning to end by elaborate dream-like adventures in a multi-dimensional
reality. Cut-out shapes, parodies of the familiar, fragments of the temporal world
move across scratchy textured surfaces, cloud-like forms and whole landscapes turn
on a pivot to reveal a whole new scene on the flip side. Moving objects harvested
from the murky recesses of a demented dreamworld, brought to life with digital techno-trickery.
The roller-coaster rails go on to infinity in defiance of any health and safety
requirements suspended in free space, and the sensation of movement was so real
I found myself at one point gripping the seat of my chair.
To close the show Haworth performed Callum McAllion's Voice aiming the poetic
lens into the dark corners of the human psyche. A monologue play embellished with
musical sounds leads the listener along a trail beginning with mundane thoughts
and ending in roller coaster spirals of obsession.
What more can I say, an unforgettable evening's entertainment.
Review by Colin Edwards
Photos by Donna Murray
www.donnamurrayphotography.com
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