The Sound Of The Wind In The Trees

Wind In The Trees apparently sounds like ponderous old people sharing their thoughts on how to live one’s life, romance, meaning, and other metaphysical whimsy. The piece by award-winning AV artist Simon Wilkinson consisted of a film screening including interviews and montages of life on earth, set to a live soundtrack of distorted guitar, the string trio Collectress and some pre-recorded drum patterns and digital glitches. The music should perhaps have been louder and more dynamic to create a more striking interaction with the spoken parts, rather than mere artistic dressing.

The q + a afterwards was engaging however, discussing the nature of interviewing and the fascinating outlooks of people in the final quarter of their lives. The anecdotes from the artist about the characters he met and the discussion about the purpose of the project were more interesting than the artwork itself in fact, raising questions about how the piece should be presented. The performance suffered from too many different directions (spoken word, music, video, text) creating uncertainty about the meaning of the artwork. The thought-provoking project shows promise, but further work is needed to produce a more powerful and absorbing experience for the next performance.

The Old Market, 5 September 2013

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