Marie-Michelle Deschamps has created a new installation and sound-work called Don’t trip over the wire ... ! for the Collective Gallery, writes Rhys Fullerton.
It’s part of The Satellites Programme – a scheme for the development of emergent artists based in Scotland who are at pivotal points in their careers. Deschamps, who graduated from The Glasgow School of Art, has only recently started practising in sound.
In the gallery notes, her piece is described as the first part of a long-term research project based on the work of schizophrenic writer Louis Wolfson, whom Deschamps has been in conversation with over the past year.
To describe this work as 'haunting' does not do justice to the complexity of it. It is haunting but the emotions it stirs are much deeper. Listening to the piece, you can’t help but feel like these are the voices in your head. Wolfson dedicated his life to developing his own personal language, and therefore you don’t understand the words here, but there is a feeling that whatever is being said is being addressed directly to you.
The first time I listened to the 8 minute 45 second piece, I sat down and faced the wall. The second time, I turned and faced the window out onto Calton Hill.
There was no-one else in the gallery at the time, and as I looked out the passers-by glanced back. They couldn’t hear the artwork, and must have wondered what I was doing there.
I found, then, that in experiencing this piece, the listener becomes the subject and can’t help feeling observed. The voices in your head become all too real as you're the only person hearing them. You don’t dare listen with your eyes closed.
Don’t trip over the wire..! continues at the Collective Gallery, City Observatory, Calton Hill until 7 September.
