The following are a series of sound performances and recordings created by Suzanne Walsh on invitation and request by various curators, film-makers and collaborators. The work is cross-disciplinary, often crossing from music into art, or film into music, or touching on more theoretical concerns.
Performance in new Vivienne Dick film - Red Moon Rising
Image by Alice Maher
I perform musically with a cast of talented others in Red Moon Rising by Vivienne Dick, which will be premiering at Experimenta 2015 in the London Film Festival, where it is also up for the Short Film award. The film will be shown on 18th of October.
'Sumptuous nature is artificially created from the female imagination as if the Garden of Eden was made for the pleasure of women only. The female inhabitants perform to a soundtrack that is radically classical or vice-versa.'
Ophelia group exhibition, Kunstenhuis, Harelbeke, Flanders, Belgium, curated by Jonas Vansteenkiste, June-Sept 2015.
The exhibition is curated around the idea of the dangerous seduction of water and its qualities and the show includes paintings, video and installation on four floors of an 18th century building in Harelbeke.
I was invited to perform my BirdbecomeBird sound work here, in which I sing in progression and loops from more musical phrases to bird-like and non-human ones. For this exhibition however, the performance (which was performed at the opening of the exhibition) was also recorded and now plays in fragments in the space for the duration of the show, invading other works and floors also.
The show also includes work by Annelies Slabbynck,Mario Leko, Stéphanie Leblon, Lawrence C. Beck, Joël Schuurmans,Mieke Teirlinck,Ruben Bellinkx, Anouk De Clercq and Eva Koch.
For a view of the catalogue (in Dutch) click here.
There will be more documentation at a later point. For an example of an earlier version of Birdbecomebird see here
The Irreducible Difference of the Other - Vivienne Dick (2013)
Sound contributions and brief appearance in this film (clip will be posted shortly).
Shown in Irish Institute in Paris (2013) and ICA London (2014), Darklight Festival Dublin (2014).
Lacan and Contemporary Art conference 2013 - performance and poster image.
The Limit of the Object was a seminar organised by the Irish Circle of Lacanian Orientation in collaboration with Art in the Contemporary World.
Photograph by Florencia Fernandez
Ncad - Culture Night 2012
A five hour performance/installation for Culture Night. This work was further development from This Time Tomorrow I Sang, a solo show in The Joinery Gallery (2012). The installation manifested differently in a more conventional space by taking shape as an ambiguous stage-set that sometimes ran itself through loops and delays, and sometimes involved the presence of the performer. This movement blurs the lines between performer and performed, elements of sound at times at war or harmony, resolving and pulling apart in an ever-evolving ecosystem and composition. This work took place in the Gallery Space of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and was created with the support of curator Ann Kelly.
Photograph by Andreuch O Maonaigh
Photograph by Andreuch O Maonaigh
The Poorhouse Revisited 2012
This event was part of the Selected Stories series in the Joinery, and involved three days of screenings and talks curated by Tadgh O’Sullivan.
The Poorhouse Revisited is a film made from found footage by film-maker Michael Higgins. On discovering that this disintegrating film stock discovered belonged to an original film called The Poorhouse he made his own dramatic less linear edit. Brian Conniffe and Suzanne Walsh created a new score for this edit and this was shown in the gallery. As one of the scheduled events, they also performed an improvised live score with for a screening of the film, along with Diarmuid MacDiarmada.
“Four is to Three (Selected Stories Programme Part Five)
Four is to Three is a series of screenings and talks based around works that utilise, challenge and subvert a shared cultural and historical memory that has increasingly become framed in the technical and narrative apparatus of the moving image.
The Selected Stories Project is a five-part project curated by the Joinery from this September to January of next year. The project will be made up of five individual shows and will include talks and screenings, bringing together a range of artists, curators and writers whose work engages with, and challenges perceptions of ‘the real’. The project will culminate in a publication of essays, writings and interviews by invited writers Rebecca O’Dwyer and Sean O’Sullivan.”
Reviews, texts and information on The Poorhouse Revisited can be found here and here
Past screenings
2013
The 9th Berlin International Director's Lounge, Germany 15min Cut Loop Feb 2013 -
2012
Experimental Film Club - In Back of the Real IFI, Dublin
Hunters Moon Festival - 3 Days of Music, Art & Film Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim
July Galway Film Fleadh Galway City, Ire
LINK Culture Fest Continuous loop with 16mm installation. Hendrons, Upper Dominic St
Selected Stories Part 5 curated by Tadhg O'Sullivan with live musical accompaniment feat. Brian Conniffe, Suzanne Walsh and Diarmuid MacDiarmada The Joinery Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.
Trailer for The Poorhouse Revisited.
Performance at Basic Space - Early version of Birdbecomebird sound piece.
This was part of a show in Basic Space called 'Halfway There'. It showed work in development for NCAD Degree show. This performance is an early version of a performance that formed part of the Degree Show in 2011. A progression is made from musical singing fragments all the way to less musical and finally into creating a bird-like landscape of sounds. This work is all improvised.
Live @8 Galway, Sligo, Cork and Dublin
A series of live sound performances at Live@8, an event curated by Ruby Wallis, Aine Philips, Maeve Mulrennan and Vivienne Dick. Live& 8 involves evenings of performance and video in a gallery setting, with a varied list of participants and themes.
Further information on the Live@8 events is available here
The photographs below show a performance for Live@8 Cork, in The Guesthouse. This performance involved singing from the pages of that day's Financial Times, over a soundtrack created in the space.
Photograph by Vivienne Dick
Photograph by Vivenne Dick
Photograph by Vivienne Dick
Performing at Live@8 Galway 2011
Prelude to Nothing
A performance with Brian Conniffe and Suzanne Walsh as part of David Fagan's event in The Lab. As part of the performance, titled Channeling In, TV signals are put through effects, mimicked, looped and re-performed before they disappear forever, an hour later.
'Prelude to Nothing was an event which marked a moment of finality; Europe's last ever broadcasting of satellite television signals in the original analogue format. This happened at 2am on Monday April 30th 2012.
The event featured contemporary dance, sculpture, video, performance and audio work. It was an attempt to anthropomorphise a system and mark it's passing. At 1.55am we stopped to watch television, at 2am, the signal ceased.
The event was curated by David Fagan and featured work by Kevin Atherton with Cormac Brown, Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty, Kevin A. Freeney,Andreas Kindler Von Knoblock & Tom Watt, Kevin Kirwan, Áine Stapleton, Brian Conniffe & Suzanne Walsh, Lee Welch
A small publication was also produced, designed by Adam Cascio with text by Patricia Garcia and Tracy Hanna. '
More information here
Performance took place on a special tv studio-like stage set, designed by Andreas Van Knobloch
Colin Crotty - Gemingeist, The Goethe Institut, Dublin, 2010
Improvisation between Suzanne Walsh and Electronic Sensoria Band on invitation. This performance attempted a a development from a previous show in The Joinery - 161610, in which the singer and band are partially separated. Gemingeist involved paintings and sculptures exploring Freudian themes around separation, and curator Georgina Jackson and Colin Crotty devised an evening event during the run of the show, involving a musical performance and film screening. In this performance the singer is separated from the band entirely, unable to hear them except through wireless headphones and respond through a wireless microphone. Visitors can see the singer performing alone in The Return gallery space, while downstairs in the reception room the band are viewed playing, along with the full feed from upstairs. This separation of improvising musicians increases the intensity and tension.
Photograph by Patrick Hough
Photograph by Patrick Hough
Photograph by Patrick Hough
161610, The Joinery, 2010.
Improvisation in which there is separation between band and singer, with use of video and projection.
'The atmospheric tumult of e+s=b with a line-up of bass clarinet, oscillator, bowed bass and drums will be augmented for this project by experimental vocalist Suzanne Walsh. Percussionist Bryan O’ Connell, John Picardo (clarinet and electronics), Daniel Byrne (guitar) and Montezuma ( record player) will input solo performances / duets / other.
Live documentation of all processes on all screens from all rooms.'
More info here
The Isle of Kiltipper
Fictional documentary about an imaginary island off the coast of Ireland. I provided narrative content, sang and performed. With additional material and performance by Gavin Prior. Produced by Michael Tanner.