Viv Corringham
Shadow-walks
James Joyce wrote that places remember events, and I found that idea very interesting- that everything that happens leaves traces that we might be able to sense. I wondered if it was only the large events that we call history that places remember, or if they also remember the small events of ordinary lives. If a person throughout a lifetime walks through certain places over and over again, along the same route, does that ground retain traces of the person’s own history and memories? This question led me to the project I call Shadow-walks. It is an attempt to make a person’s traces, their shadow, audible. The process of a Shadow-walk is reasonably straightforward. I request to be taken on a special walk with an individual, a walk that has been repeated many times and has distinct meaning or significance for that person. An initial walk with the person along their selected route, in which environmental sounds and conversations are recorded, is followed by my solo walk in which I attempt to sense my previous companion’s tracks on the walk and to make audible their memories and feelings through improvised singing in the location. Recordings are later combined and edited to become the final work, the Shadow-walk. Shadow-walks have been disseminated as audio-walks through which other people could follow the route and add their own traces and memories, as listening posts at public spaces in a town, or in an art gallery via headphones, along with objects found on the street while walking. Found Objects As I follow the person’s route, I collect what I find there. I was inspired to start collecting by the work of the British walking artist, Richard Long. His walks are rural so he collects stones and mud and natural things. But I walk mainly in urban areas so what I find is usually debris and litter. Sometimes these objects seem poignant and relevant to the walker. For example, on a walk in which a historian had spoken about the hidden layers of history we walk through but often do not see, I found a length of film, something recorded but also invisible to the naked eye. These easily ignored objects exist as traces that others left behind, as if allowing the environment to remember that they were there. The first Shadow-Walk project- Cork, Ireland During my three- week residency in Cork in October 2004, seven people led me on walks. In June 2005 I returned with a series of audio-walks in which members of the public could choose to follow one of these routes selected by an inhabitant of Cork as “special” in some way. Each Shadow-Walker received a portable CD player, a leaflet on their selected route, an invitation to contribute words, drawings or other responses to the walk, and a set of plastic bags in which to collect “found objects” on the journey. These responses and objects were shown in the space, (the post office) along with those made and collected by me, and created an ever-increasing visual documentation and display. They prompted a great deal of interest from people calling in to buy a stamp. An article on this work appeared in For Those Who Have Ears, an Art Trail publication. I am delighted that the central library’s music department have archived the entire collection of Cork Shadow-walks and so they will be available to the public permanently. Here are some comments made by participants:
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Copyright Viv Corringham
