Lines Towards Another Century
A collaboration with Tom Nicholson
A performance for video, string quartet, percussionist, and recorded voices
Commissioned by Media Art Bath
"Byrne and Nicholson’s poignant ritual managed to conjure up a suitably ominous portrait of the previous century..."
Chris Fite-Wassilak in Frieze Magazine, October 2008
Read the complete review in Frieze Magazine
Project Description:
Lines Towards Another Century is the result of a collaboration between Australian artist, Tom Nicholson and New York based composer, Andrew Byrne. Commencing with a live performance of the work by The Elysian Quartet, the exhibition combines live and recorded sound and performance.
Lines Towards Another Century takes as its starting point, a list of the national boundaries created during the 20th century. Since 2003, Tom Nicholson has used this list as the basis of a number of projects including a series of banner marches (realised as participatory performances) and exhibitions that document and extend this material through video, drawing and photography. The list forms a mnemonic ordering system as the lines of the boundaries are traced onto contemporary cities, and translated into contemporary contexts.
The work was presented at The Holburne Museum as an exhibition with the live performance of an instructional score for instrumental ensemble and voice. This was performed by The Elysian Quartet within a specially devised installation of visual and sonic elements gathered from the various performances and actions that make up the work - ranging from footage of the banner marches to the recordings of individual voices.
Lines Towards Another Century makes reference to the issue of boundary making - often a bloody and violent contention both historically and today - by cleverly layering and obliquely referencing this history through action in the present.
For more information on performance & exhibition in June 2008 in Bath, England
For more information on 2006 performance at VCA, Melbourne.