By-Flete (2024)

By-Flete (Cheshire Dialect - a piece of land cut off by the change of a rivers course) takes the form of a merged filmic diptych which documents two artist’s journey towards the other from their respective motherlands, crossing Sir Gawain’s path traversing twin rivers; the Dee and the Mersey.

By-Flete encompasses two practices, which use performance and sound to activate ambient and tacit histories of spaces, spanning the geography of The Green Knight and partnered in their exploration of the-space-between, activating presence, and the validity of place through its relation to that of another. By-Flete is visually representative of an ephemeral non-place combining visuals of architectures both medieval and brutalist, in order to deliver a spatial delineation of a sound which is beyond time, haply rendered both ancient and futuristic. This staging is further articulated through the act of post-synced audio and the detachment of sound from the specific spatial and temporal context in which it was recorded. This separation is dislocating and grants both sound and site alike, an existence that is independent of tangible, environmental signifiers thereby falling in accordance with Auge’s ‘non-place’ (1995)—marked by transience and lack of identity.

By-Flete documents the performative research conducted in relation to the form and scale of site, portraying bodies in conversation with space via sonic encounters; the artists are tethered to the landscape by extended silver strings, which are then bowed and plucked as focus is drawn to the vibratory gesture shared between the two. This action was instrumentally mirrored live through sister work Lustrum.

Below: In-situ (2024)

B&W Film / Soundscape  (5 Minutes) 

The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Wirral Borough of Culture 2024