Acclaimed Quandamooka artist Megan Cope will present her sound installation Untitled (Death Song) in collaboration with instrument builder Isha Ram Das and Liquid Architecture curator Joel Stern as part of new exhibition Megan Cope: Fractures & Frequencies.
Utilising sculptural instruments crafted from abandoned industrial machinery and mining equipment, Cope has built a remarkable soundscape around the eerie cries of the yellow-eyed Bush Stone curlew, an endangered species that is also a harbinger of death in Quandamooka culture, inviting us to contemplate both the loss of invaluable natural and cultural treasures due to settler activity in Australia, and what further harms await us in the future.
The exhibition also features several related projects, including the sound sculpture ‘Old Kahibah’, which maps the sound vibrations of Awabakal Country in the Lake Macquarie area, which has experienced significant geological alteration from industrial coal extraction.
“I am deeply interested in the sound of Country,” Cope says of her work. “If the land could sing, how might it sound? Untitled (Death Song) asks the viewer to think about the role of sound in our lives and the effect of vibration in our bodies and land. It is a work that calls for deep listening, in order to align mind and body with the earth.”
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