Hildegard Westerkamp
At the Edge of Wilderness
September 4 – October 4, 2020

Soundwalk with Hildegard Westerkamp: Friday, September 4 at 2pm
Skills for Solitude: Sound Thinking with Giorgio Magnanensi, Sunday September 27 at 11am

At the Edge of Wilderness is Sound-Slide Installation about Ghosttowns in British Columbia. The installation explores a strange moment of excitement and magic, discovery and adventure, the moment when the contemporary visitor encounters an abandoned industrial site. This moment also contains questions and stories about human industrial activities of the past and present; or a sense of the spirits and ghosts still hovering among the skeletal remains while nature is gradually reclaiming its place. It is as if visitor and place are taking a deep breath together during this encounter, convalescing from injury, contemplating the edge where junk and artifact, destruction and new growth, noise and quiet meet; where perceptions of a shameful past in need of cleaned-up collide with feelings of pride towards a heritage worth preserving.

Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist and sound ecologist. She presents soundscape workshops and lectures internationally, performs and writes. After completing her music studies in the early seventies her ears were drawn beyond music to the acoustic environment as a broader cultural context or place for intense listening. Whether as a composer, educator, or radio artist most of her work since the mid-seventies has centred around environmental sound and acoustic ecology. Hildegard’s compositions have been performed and broadcast in many parts of the world. The majority of her compositional output deals with aspects of the acoustic environment: with urban, rural or wilderness soundscapes, with the voices of children, men and women, with noise or silence, music and media sounds, or with the sounds of different cultures, and so on. She has composed film soundtracks, sound documents for radio and has produced and hosted radio programs such as Soundwalking, and Musica Nova on Vancouver Co-operative Radio.

For more information: https://sunshinecoastartscouncil.com/hildegard-westerkamp-at-the-edge-of-wilderness/

Alan Sirulnikoff and Richard Nelson
Altered States
September 4 – October 4, 2020

We are pleased to present an exhibition of select works by Sunshine Coast-based artists Alan Sirulnikoff and Richard Nelson. Invited as a response to the work of Hildegard Westerkamp, these photographic and film works, are part of an ongoing exploration and connection with fragments from the non-human landscape, in an attempt to examine or interact with them in a more intimate way.

For more information

Free! 20 participants maximum;
Sunday September 27th, 11:00 – 12:30pm

To Register

Born and raised in Italy, Giorgio Magnanensi currently lives in Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada. His diverse artistic practice includes composition, conducting, improvisation, circuit bending and video art. He is artistic director of Vancouver New Music and Laboratorio, and lecturer at the School of Music of the Vancouver Community College. https://giorgiomagnanensi.com/about/

This is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Hildegard Westerkamp “Into the Wilderness” at the Doris Crowston Gallery at the Sechelt Arts Centre.: https://sunshinecoastartscouncil.com/hildegard-westerkamp-at-the-edge-of-wilderness/

You need to have access to a computer with video and sound, and a stable internet connection. Zoom also works with a smartphone or tablet. We encourage you to sign up early so that you can test out the link to make sure it works well for you.

Skills for Solitude are a series of online workshops combining ideas, hands-on experimenting and a chance to share what you made. These workshops are open to any skill level and are meant to be a fun and creative way to keep connected during COVID-19.