Creekshow

Five channel audio installation / 2022
Collaboration with Jenny Witzel
APT Gallery London

Calum developed this audio installation for APT Gallery in London, as part of a project by artist and curator Jenny Witzel. The project explores Deptford Creek, a small river in Deptford, South London, which flows into the Thames. Through the lens of this river, we begin to ask questions about memory, environment and gentrification, and about what it means to live in this area of London today.

Calum created this sound installation through a process of research and interviews with the Deptford community. He recorded interviews with older residents who remember Deptford in the 1940s; an engineer who works on a bridge which crosses Deptford Creek; a couple who have lived on a boat on the river for the past 30 years. Calum edited these interviews and set them to music and field recordings; a sparse violin, the water of the creek lapping at the side of a boat, the drone of traffic forming a musical note.

He then placed different speakers in boxes throughout the gallery, amongst detritus washed up in the river. The music playing from each speaker collectively forms a single chord which resonates throughout the gallery, but it is only when an audience member places their ear close to each speaker that they can make sense of the recorded dialogue, creating an intimacy between listener and interviewee.