To a network of tunnels hidden beneath London Bridge station (the door is just by the pie stall). Once past the Gatekeepers (OK OK, the box office attendants), we walked a hundred and fifty odd steps along a dimly lit passage. Either side of us, pitch black. Scary. A man was climbing a step ladder to better access a long stick on a tall tripod, each end of which held a small megaphone and a red light…
With the Evening Standard headline boards warning of ‘99mph gale wind chaos’, travelling to the Shunt Vaults last night was a dangerous undertaking. The 149 bus had been temporarily discontinued; Liverpool Street station was cordoned off because a piece of lead was in danger of falling from the roof. We slipped down Catherine Wheel Alley and navigated the treacherous back streets of the City, skilfully resisting the temptations of nice old pub upon nice old pub.
The show was ‘Siren’, a sound art performance created by a man named Ray Lee. He and his co-performer Harry Dawes moved methodically around a particularly dungeon-esque cross-section of the vaults. Each megaphone-stick (the technical term escapes me), once activated, began to rotate and drone. Was this plate spinning with an Arts Council grant? Then the lights went off and it was the perfect emphasis that looking was not the important thing. With no visual distractions (aside from the lovely, swooping red lights) all that was left was the most beautiful cacophony, like listening to 10,000 cathedrals all at once. Continuing to walk around, the effect changed subtly. The sounds seemed strangely sentient. One made me think of a model aeroplane from a cartoon, another of the ‘electromagnetic radiation’ that Ray Lee is apparently fascinated by.
It’s coming to Kinetica in a couple of months.
Seb
