Return
A woman returns to a venue after many months’ absence. Immersed in sound she drifts from room to room, rediscovering the lost voices and identities that are buried in the brickwork.
Background
In 2021 Return was Feral’s creative endeavour to connect people with place through site-specific production.
In spite of intermittent lockdowns in the UK over the year, Feral’s Artistic Director Estelle van Warmelo was able again to play matchmaker to creative people from different practices, this time bringing together the talents of poet Sara-Jane Arbury and composer Sophie Cooper.
This Feral commission from the Hereford Courtyard placed the building itself centre stage. The work was been designed to mark the reopening of the venue as it took tentative steps out of lockdown into the brave new world.
In what was presented both as an in-person exhibit and as a digital work that lives online, Return aims to bring the centre’s identity to the fore, through hat tips to past inhabitants and by embracing those of the future as they come to life in the new experimental studio above the foyer.
Production
The creative team came together in person just once over the course of the project, convening for an onsite visit in early spring 2021. After an hour spent plotting a route through the building — absorbing, responding to and talking about the different spaces — Herefordshire-based poet Sara-Jane Arbury then went away to produce the evocative text that became the foundation for the composition process. Panto favourite Madi MacMahon came on board for the recording process, enabling composer Sophie Cooper to get to work on what became six experimental pieces of contemporary sound design.
This was the second Feral collaboration with the remarkable Sophie Cooper and Return brought about our most ambitious sound work to date. Sound has always been a key ingredient in Feral’s output and Sophie’s phenomenal ability to create design that springs from onsite field recordings brings deep authenticity to the end results.
Producing Return would not have been possible without the courage of The Courtyard’s Ian Archer, who again offered support to bring experimental work to Hereford. This forward-thinking piece celebrates everything that makes the venue unique, from its people to the visiting cat, and signals a new chapter in its artistic identity.
Exhibition and Release
Return rans as a series of free private tours around The Courtyard from Tuesday 31st August 2021 to Thursday 2nd September 2021.
The project is available as a podcast and on the Feral YouTube channel.