The commission
Survival: lines of flight is commissioned by Unravelled, as part of their WETLANDS UNRAVELLED project at the London Wetland Centre. WETLANDS UNRAVELLED showcases the work of 10 artists, each responding in different ways to Unravelled's commission brief. to make work for LWC in response to a brief exploring issues of conflict through conservation, climate change and migration.
|
Gavin Osborn
[click photo for website]
|
Gavin is a musician & interdisciplinary artist based in the Northwest UK. His work spans solo & ensemble performance as a flautist, composition, & site-specific project work encompassing sound work, text, visual/physical materials & performance, often in collaboration with other artists, musicians, dancers & non-arts practitioners. |
About the work:
"Climate change is not a story. [...] It is life. We are inside the climate. Everything else happens inside the climate, including our psychological state." Naomi Klein, 2019
The climate crisis has brought into focus a human tendency to think of ourselves as somehow separate to or outside something called 'Nature', ignoring that we - & even our most technological activities - exist within, affect & are affected by natural environmental systems.
Exploring the London Wetland Centre in relation to this, I'm fascinated by how LWC is a model for a particular relationship: in urban surrounds, under Heathrow flightpaths, obsolete city infrastructure is repurposed as a wetland, a space for 'wild' things that necessarily requires our constant interaction & stewardship.
Layered through this is the disruption the climate crisis may bring to the habitat: potential physical alterations, changes in biodiversity & resource availability, altered bird migration patterns - & how these elements not only have analogues in human circumstances & behaviour, but are deeply interconnected with it.
I'll be making a series of soundworks for visitors, using on-site recordings & interviews, specially created texts, & sound sourced from more distant places linked to LWC. Listeners can immerse themselves in the audio whilst in the wetlands, experiencing LWC's wider connection to broader issues & geographies. I'll also be creating visual work, & combining all these elements into performances at LWC.
The climate crisis has brought into focus a human tendency to think of ourselves as somehow separate to or outside something called 'Nature', ignoring that we - & even our most technological activities - exist within, affect & are affected by natural environmental systems.
Exploring the London Wetland Centre in relation to this, I'm fascinated by how LWC is a model for a particular relationship: in urban surrounds, under Heathrow flightpaths, obsolete city infrastructure is repurposed as a wetland, a space for 'wild' things that necessarily requires our constant interaction & stewardship.
Layered through this is the disruption the climate crisis may bring to the habitat: potential physical alterations, changes in biodiversity & resource availability, altered bird migration patterns - & how these elements not only have analogues in human circumstances & behaviour, but are deeply interconnected with it.
I'll be making a series of soundworks for visitors, using on-site recordings & interviews, specially created texts, & sound sourced from more distant places linked to LWC. Listeners can immerse themselves in the audio whilst in the wetlands, experiencing LWC's wider connection to broader issues & geographies. I'll also be creating visual work, & combining all these elements into performances at LWC.