Sound sculpture, created for the Watermarks exhibition, made from repurposed church organ pipes, a bouncy castle blower, and electronics.
The sound is triggered when a big red button (labeled DO NOT PUSH) is pushed. The button switches on the bouncy castle blower for 5 seconds and then switches off again. The bouncy castle blower is attached to all 4 church organ pipes that play simultaniously.
Each church organ pipe represents one of the four rivers that can be found in the Wakefield District at a scale of 1 to 10,000. The largest pipe is 2.8m long and represents the 28km of the River Calder. The next largest represents the River Aire, followed by the River Went, with the smallest representing the River Dearne – the lengths relate only to the sections of the river that can be found within the Wakefield District.[1]
[1] The largest pipe is one of 20 that I purchased from a builder in Colchester. On the journey back from Colchester to Wakefield on 29th September 2023 I crossed the following rivers – Stour, Gipping, Cam, Great Ouse, Nene, Welland, Trent, Maun, Meden, Poulter, Ryton, Torne, Don and Calder. Thanks to Helen Thomas for noting these, in order, as we crossed.
Tony Wade 