Willow

About the work

Willow begins with a question: how can the movement of wind be reconstructed without generating wind? An invisible force becomes perceptible through what it moves and the sounds it leaves behind. Working with recorded wind and suspended materials, the installation explores how something absent can acquire a presence within another place.

Field recordings become control data for a modular motor system. The same sound is heard in the space and used to produce physical movement. Changes in weight, elasticity, length and suspension allow each material to respond differently to a shared input. The resulting motions retain irregularities, making the materials active participants in how the recorded force is encountered.

Successive versions bring these experiments into different spatial arrangements. Viewers move between sound and moving matter; what seems connected from one position can separate as they change direction or distance. A later configuration uses internal reflections within a cube made from one-way mirrors to extend the perceived space. These encounters invite attention to shift between the movement being watched and the body through which it is experienced. The related performance Saudade expands this inquiry through projected images, light and a live performer. The iterations below trace that development while retaining Willow as an ongoing investigation.