A view of Echo Chamber during a preview in Stroud in March. Photo: Ruth Davey.
Echo Chamber
Fiona Meadley, Ruth Davey and Dominic Thomas write about an adventurous art project coming soon to Friends House
Echo Chamber is a new artwork inspired by the stories of world war one conscientious objectors.
At its core are their voices, speaking directly to us. Their stories may shock our modern ear (sharing prison with men about to be executed), are often sad (a family rift never healed), and sometimes strike an unexpected note (a moment of trust between prisoner and guards).
Creating this as a contemporary artwork, we hope the result is something fresh that will speak to a new generation. These choices are still being made. Modern recordings have been mixed with interviews of world war one conscientious objectors that were recorded by the Imperial War Museum in the 1970s.
The different voices are all bandaged inside a tent-like space, a visually pared-down environment. The focus is on the voices, which come and go and then build up into a babble. The listener has to take an active role in choosing which voice to follow. The sound runs on a twenty-minute repeating loop, and you can listen again and again and still pick out something different each time.
Surrounding the echo chamber are images: contemporary photographs, each of a person holding a black and white portrait. We invited people with relatives who were world war one conscientious objectors to take these photos and share stories. In some cases the project spurred people to research almost forgotten family histories – the hundred years separating them lying just within reach of living memory. For others these memories are still raw.
The genesis of this project was an unusual centenary ceremony held in 2014 at Tavistock Square, in London, when sixty families of conscientious objectors shared their photographs and stories. It was hugely moving, involving people who, in their day, had been considered cowards for taking an unpopular stand and who were being honoured at last. Images of that day will be displayed on a television screen at the entrance of the exhibition.
Fiona, Ruth and Dominic are artists based in Gloucestershire. They work with new media, archives and installations. Fiona and Ruth are Quakers and Dominic attended Bootham School.
Echo Chamber will be at The Light, Friends House London from 18 August to 2 September.
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