CARO WILLIAMS

Metal sound notes transcribed from lark song recordings, ribbon, thread, sound (Lark song)

Dimensions: L300xW200XD200cm

Aesthetica Art Prize Finalist 2023 | York Art Gallery

Photo: Charlotte Graham Photography

’In The White Dawn is inspired by poetry and the natural world. Caro Williams, a London-based installation and mixed-media artist, works with symbols, sound, language and place. Drawing inspiration from everyday experiences – including film clips, lines from poems and sounds – Williams transforms them into new materials through digital
manipulation and sculptural installations. This process of translation is akin to a poem in the viewer's mind, suspended in a surreal reality where meaning is ambiguous. It is simultaneously familiar and strangely out of reach.’ – Future Now Anthology, 2023

Aesthetica Artist Video
‘…Other finalists on show include Caro Williams, whose mesmerising hanging installation Birdsong is inspired by poetry and nature…’ – Aesthetica Art Prize Review

Mirror polished steel

H 142 x W 80 x D 15cm (as image)

Installation dimensions variable

TERRA Exhibition, Espacio Gallery, London 2022

I first came across these strange words describing bird songs in Raymond Murray Schafer’s book, Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape. He mentions as an aside a strange language invented by ornithologists to describe the sounds of birds. I found the book ‘Songs of the Wild’ by E M Nicholson and Ludwig Koch, published in 1936. I chose the songs randomly and discovered 5 of the 7 birds all once plentiful in the UK are now on the conservation red list.

The text lines are laser cut in mirror-polished steel. I wanted the work to reflect its surroundings in particular us as the viewers. This work also continues my experiments with written and visual language. I put the line through the text to explore the idea that when things disappear or become obscured a space is opened up for new possibilities or imaginings.

voice recording, neon, acrylic support

420mm x 594mm x 50mm

One of a series of drawings taken from the soundwave of the spoken word ‘PEACE’ that were copied in neon. Spoken and recorded over 100 consecutive days.

Soundscapes describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place ― R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: the Tuning of the World

Exploring the possibilities of tuning in to 'nature’s voices' using stills from my films with sound markers for birdsong recordings.

Exhibition: A Stitch in Time, Arts Territory Exchange, Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, Chongqing, China, May – June 2021

Exhibition: 4th Today’s Documents: A Stitch in Time, Arts Territory Exchange, curated by Huang Du & Jonathan Harris, Today Art Museum, Beijing 12 Dec–15 Mar 2020

Exhibition: Put this in your window and think of me @artsterritoryexchange A dual location exhibition in Cambridge between the Dept of land Economy Cambridge University and Cambridge Artworks Gallery. The exhibition, curated by @artsterritoryexchange and @artlanguagelocation, explores themes of land, territory, and 'ownership'. 31Aug-30Sep 2019

Laser-cut brass text, chain, carpet
L 170 x W 95 x D 2 cm

Selected for inclusion in the Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition. .

Details: https://sculptors.org.uk/whats-on/2020/exhibition/summer-exhibition

Metal song notes, ribbon, blue floodlights, soundtrack (lark song)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum – Museum at Large Public Art Commission (location: Sweet Chestnut Tree, Rougemont Gardens, Exeter)

Lark Song is inspired by RAMM’s bird collection which includes species whose song we no longer hear, alongside those in danger of being lost. Once frequently heard, the skylark is on the conservation red list. As well as reflecting on the fragility of species, Caro’s work celebrates the wonder and joy of birdsong, recalling a line in George Meredith’s poem ‘Lark Ascending’ ..... ‘He drops the silver chain of sound’.

Sound recordings from Dartmoor are used with the kind permission of the British Sound Library.

Listen to Lark song soundtrack

Mirror polished steel
W110 x H142 x D32cm

Text: extract from Yves Klein’s prayer to the of saint of impossible and desperate cases …

Aesthetica Art Prize Finalist 2023 | Caro Williams

Caro Williams is a London-based installation and mixed-media artist who works with symbols, sound, language, and place. Metal song notes are created from lark song recordings in 'In The White Dawn', an installation inspired by poetry and interactions with the natural world, which is shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2023.

Caro talks about the work …

Call and Response & Call and Response — Poem

Poem, early morning site recordings UK and NZ, Morse code, text, speakers, laser-cut and engraved mirror finished stainless steel sound boxes,

Cicatrix Exhibition, 12 September - 1 December 2018 at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Bath Road, Swindon SN1 4BA

Sound sample

Cicatrix Walk and Talk at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery 27 September 7.30pm

Mirror polished stainless steel
110 x 120 x 25 cm

Selected for inclusion in the Royal Scottish Academy Online Annual Exhibition 2022.

The partial erasure and positioning of the text render it difficult or impossible to decipher. Like seeing an inscription in an unknown language meaning slips into ambiguity inviting personal interpretations and imaginings.

Spoken word, black acrylic
w6cm x h1.75cm x d0.3cm x 2, w3cm x h1.25cm x d0.3cm x 2

“....And the tiny Perspex ‘boats’ by @carowilliamsartist have a sheen to them that will also show up when seen/photographed by day. (They’re sculpted renderings of the sound wave of the spoken word ‘crossings’ - very subtle, somber and current)” –Eldi Dundee, Curator

Big Small Summer Open, Small House Gallery A mini contemporary art curation project for a group of dolls houses in South Londo

Poem, text, ink

Experimenting with written and visual language to explore the idea that when things disappear a space is opened up for new possibilities.

“An erased word will always be a stain but the word still remains... The real power of erasure does not lie in negation or prohibition; but rather in the ability to open the doors of language by pretending to close them.” – Emilio Isgrò

 

Sound notes for birdsong on fine cables
Drawing for an idea… recorded sound waveforms transformed into glinting metal suspended from trees. The slightest breeze causing them to move and glint in the light of the woods.

Metal song notes created from lark song recordings, ribbon, QR code to soundtrack – 165 (H) x 75 (W) x 5 (D) cm

Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition 2022 Cromwell Place, Gallery 3, London SW7 2JE

Each ‘sound note’ visually encapsulates the sound and duration of a particular moment in the Lark song. Once frequently heard, the skylark is on the conservation red list. As well as reflecting on the fragility of species, Caro’s work celebrates the wonder and joy of birdsong, recalling a line in George Meredith’s poem ‘Lark Ascending’ ..... ‘He drops the silver chain of sound’.

Ice cream cones, plaster and pins
I sent sounds directly onto a small wall then on the other side I stuck ice cream cones that I had dipped in plaster creating a 'cone cluster sound wall'.

Poem, voice font created from sound bands generated by spoken alphabet

2015, Archival inkjet print, dimensions: 59.5x42cm
 
These works were created using a Voice Font. Voice Font is a typeface I invented made from the spoken alphabet. The shape that each letter of the alphabet takes is created from the sound band generated from the speaking of the letter.

Celeste 2015 Finalist 7th International Contemporary Art Prize

2nd place in Photography and Digital Graphics Category

Iridescent plexiglass sound notes, embroidery thread, braided fabric lighting cable, shadow

H 85 x W 160 x D 5 cm

Photos – ©Julia Lametta 

The starting point for this work was a recording heard on the radio of a man long dead who was remembering the sound of the Huia, an extinct bird, as it had been sung to him in his youth. This work continues my explorations of the possibility of creating a visual marker to evoke both a sound and a silence.

This work was part of the On the Edge Exhibition with fellow London members of the Royal Society of Sculptors who gathered to make work to reflect upon what it means to have a sculptural practice in today’s uncertain times.

Blue Hour is a multi-media light and sound installation

Dimensions: Site dependant

Media/finish: Brass and steel sound notes created from dawn chorus recordings taken during the blue hour, brass bells, silk thread, chain, metal sound boxes playing the birdsong, blue light

Site: Contemporary Art and Ritual, Crypt Gallery, London, exhibition co-curated by Caro Williams and Deborah Burnstone. Additional exhibition details Contemporary Art and Ritual

“….Exploring nature’s own daily rituals was Caro Williams’ installation called ‘Blue Hour’ which immerses you in blue light and the sound of birds singing their morning chorus. Laser-cut sound waves of brass and steel, of the birdsong itself, are suspended in the space on chains in vertical configurations, giving a visual signifier of the aural landscape. The sensory effect is particularly entrancing in the silence and isolation of the crypt – a magical and transporting experience and very well-rounded piece of work.”

–Review by Matt Bray artist, writer, and curatorSound sample: here

Soundboard and film still from Iceland footage.
I initially had the idea of visually catching sound where it fell onto my studio wall. This particular shelf reminded me of a snow-covered mountain in Iceland.

Film montage using footage taken in Iceland.

The artwork seeks to visually tune into nature’s voice.

selected for inclusion in Automated, Fringe Arts Bath Virtual edition 2020 https://www.fringeartsbath.co.uk/automated

Soundscape – Sound Mapping, Iceland

Film Still, sound markers

Soundscapes describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place ― R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: the Tuning of the World

Exploring the possibilities of tuning in to 'nature’s voices' using stills from my films with sound markers for birdsong recordings.

A still from my film with sound markers
Continuing my experiments with visual soundscapes, sound mapping, and sound markers. This time in a frozen landscape.

Soundscape – Bláskógabyggð, Iceland. 64.2764° N, 20.4009° W

A still from my film with sound markers for dawn chorus birdsong recording.

Continuing my experiments with visual soundscapes, sound mapping, and sound markers to explore the possibilities of tuning in to 'nature’s voices'.

Elgar, known for his deep love of nature, mused about the idea of ‘fixing’ the sounds of nature. –Rustling Reeds and Lofty Pines: Elgar and the Music of Nature, Matthew Riley

Blue Hour Dreaming – Sound Markers
This processed film still is taken from my earlier recording for the Blue Hour project with added sound markers.

voice recording, neon, acrylic support

420mm x 594mm x 50mm each

Three of a series of drawings taken from the soundwave of the spoken word ‘PEACE’ that were copied in neon. Spoken and recorded over 100 consecutive days.

Sound notes made from dawn recordings, chain, light, photography

Pink Noise

‘Pink noise is one of the most common signals in biological systems’ (Szendro, P).

The momentary and sometimes barely perceptible sounds heard in nature such as the rustling of leaves, the sound of the wind and fragments of birdsong have been recorded and transformed into visual markers as an attempt to create a visual and tangible record of pink noise.

Film still from dawn recording footage

Selected for inclusion in the ‘Fabrizio Paterlini – Piano Microstories – The Eighth Note’. The publication is a compilation of poetry and photography in response to music.

Fabrizio Paterlini – Piano Microstories – The Eighth Note Publication

Exploring digital abstraction using my photograph of a buddha’s hand to create an impression of silent sound.

Materials: 2 polished steel sound boxes

Box 1 Dawn Chorus site-recordings taken at Fort Takapuna Historic Reserve, Auckland, NZ

Box 2 Dawn Chorus site-recordings taken at the Bulford Kiwi on the Salisbury Plain, UK

Each recording played separately from the boxes intermingled with a Morse code translation of Returning, We Hear the Larks by Isaac Rosenberg.

Dimensions: 25 x 25 x 10cm each box

Call and Response links the military landscapes of the Salisbury Plain and a tract of historic land in New Zealand through intertwining birdsong punctuated by a Morse code transmission of a WW1 poem, Returning, We Hear the Larks by Isaac Rosenberg.

This work seeks to create a sense of place, a convergence of two distant lands bound by personal narratives and communal history.

Call and Response soundtrack

Call and Response was exhibited at the 2016 Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival and toured nationally and internationally during 2017-2018 as part of the Cicatrix International Cultural Exchange.

Sponsored by: Creative New Zealand World War 1 Centenary (WW100) Co-commissioning Fund and Arts Council England.

Cicatrix is a member of the First World War Centenary Partnership, led by Imperial War Museums.

2018 Cicatrix imprimé, Atelier Circulaire Gallery, Centre d’arts imprimés, Montréal, Canada

2018 Call and Response, Town Hall Arts, Market Street, Trowbridge

2018 Cicatrix, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Swindon, UK

2017 Call and Response, Nathan Homestead, Auckland, NZ

2016 Call and Response, The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre, Havant, UK

2016 Call and Response, Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival, UK

Image: Call and Response, Rifles Museum Gardens, Salisbury, 2016

Laser-cut brass

Brass study for Call and Response

featured on Axisweb Category of the Week - Metalwork

https://www.axisweb.org/collections/k8mez93twca6/

Site sound recordings, electro-polished marine grade stainless steel sound notes, hand-cut clear tubing, stainless steel cable, steel frames

Dimensions: 10,000 x 1750 x 100mm

Site: Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Arabella Lane, Snells Beach, Warkworth, New Zealand 2014-2016

The momentary and sometimes barely perceptible sounds of bird songs have been recorded and transformed into visual markers to create a tangible record of songs from the sky frozen in time.

Sound recordings of birdsong heard onsite at Brick Bay such as those of the Fantail, Yellowhead, Tui, etc., have been gathered and transcribed into sound notes and laser cut into electropolished stainless steel pieces. These are attached to steel wires threaded with hand-cut clear tubing.  Each sound note visually encapsulates the sound and duration of a particular moment in the bird song with the silences between one sound and the next represented by the lines created by the threaded wires. The sound notes have been sequenced like a musical score with each birdsong broken up into timed sections.

The artwork is suspended high in the Kahikatea trees.

Chalk, glass beads, acrylic, lead, cloth, bluestone, audio (site sound recordings), framed book

Site: NZ Sculpture on the Shore 2014, gun emplacement structure 2014

A Wordless Song draws from Siegfried Sassoon's poem, Everyone sang, to create a contemplative space within the gun emplacement structure.

Early morning recordings of sounds heard inside the concrete structure playback into the space. The spoken words of the poem, transcribed into tangible acrylic ciphers and threaded onto strands of glass beads, hang from the ceiling to floor and are held in place with lead weights. The phrase - the singing will never be done – is used as a refrain and coupled with each line of the poem on every strand. The written words of the poem are translated into Morse code and inscribed in chalk around the walls.

Sound sample here

Voice recording, Carrara marble

1500 x 500 x 20mm

Site: NZ Sculpture on Shore 2010

Cloud Shadow represents the word ‘cloud’ from the line “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now” sung by Joni Mitchell.

voice recording, marble

1350mm x 500mm x 40mm

Site: Headland Sculpture on the Gulf  2011

Earth Echo is a silent representation of the spoken word ‘earth’ made tangible in marble.  It includes and draws through the earth from a mineral from the earth suggesting a rock formation while hinting at the cityscape across the horizon.

Polystyrene packaging, pins

Installation 2550mm x 2270mm

On-site sound recordings, aluminium, rubber thread

3200 x 3000mm

Site: Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island

Winner of Gen-i Selector’s award 2013

Selected by Axisweb for Category of the Week 'Sound Art'.  https://www.axisweb.org/collections/zr6n3tlp8o5d/

Collection James Wallace Arts Trust

The momentary and sometimes barely perceptible sounds heard on the site in the early morning, such as fragments of bird songs or leaves rustling in the wind, have been recorded and transformed into visual markers to create a tangible record of sound frozen in time.

Field Notes is a site-specific installation created for Headland Sculpture on the Gulf 2013. Sound recordings taken in the environment around the tree were transcribed and cut into aluminium and attached to rubber threads anchored in the ground and connected to a branch of the tree. Each ‘sound note’ visually encapsulated the sound and duration of a particular moment in the dawn chorus attempting to silently engage our acoustic link to nature by visually suggesting what we might hear.

Mapping spoken words in space

Book pages of poetry, plaster, book binding tape

Exploring a book as an axis of endless relationships. – J. L. Borges
Pages of poetry bound together with book binding tape and covered in plaster to hide what is there but allowing the viewer to imagine more. When things disappear a space is opened up for new creations.

Book pages, plaster, wood

The shoes made from pages of an old book are placed in a spiral as if discarded from a part of performance art or a meditation juxtaposing movement with stillness.

Acrylic, ribbon, pins

3090mm x 3880mm x 1000mm

Code and Reverie Exhibition, Black Asterisk Gallery, Auckland 2013

This text-based installation is drawn from The Final Harvest Collection of Emily Dickinson poems and comprises laser-cut words threaded onto ribbons suspended from ceiling to floor.  The words all represent sounds and have been extracted from their original contexts within poems. They are Words like babbling, a gasp, murmuring, a sigh. Each hangs in order of where the poems appeared in the book and their place along the line of the poem.

I was attempting to activate the sound element of these ‘sound’ words. I choose the font because I thought it hinted at musical notes and then tweaked it so that it would stay suspended in the ribbon. The tinted blue acrylic I used for its light reflective qualities, its relation to blue ink and importantly because Yves Klein said blue makes the invisible visible!  Ribbon was chosen because of its use as a page marker within books and to allude to typewriter ribbon.

Site-recordings transcribed into sound notes cut in polished steel, coloured ribbons

Poem, spoken words

These works comprise spoken words of a poem transcribed into 3-dimensional sound vessels created from soundwaves generated by spoken words t

Spoken word, 3d plaster print, ribbon

2670 x 1850 x 200mm

Poem, powder-coated aluminium, ribbon, lead, cloth

Finalist 23rd Annual Wallace Art Awards 2014

This work is drawn from Emily Dickinson poem, No. 449 I died for beauty, and comprises laser-cut words threaded onto ribbons. Each of the 18 strands holds one line of the poem and hangs from the wall to the floor where they are held in place with lead weights. The cut-out sentences are delicate and extremely light weight allowing them to move in the slightest breeze. Their movement causes light reflections to run up and down the sentences...more

Proposal for an installation

12 x 10cm2016

Electro-polished stainless steel, ribbon, flocking

Luciano Benetton Collection, New Zealand: Kiwi Consciousness

Part of the Imago Mundi international art project, Huia Song Remembered, is drawn from a remembered sound of the extinct Huia bird whistled to the tune of a childhood memory. No actual recordings of the Huia exist.

The artworks from New Zealand were exhibited in Trieste, Italy and also compiled to make a book.

Site recordings, ink, paper

Plastic thread cones, pins

250mm x 70mm each

installation dimensions variable

Sound vessels created from a poetry reading cut in clear plexiglass, map pins

Sound Wheel created from a translation of spoken words.

Voice Font, Inaudible Recital, Sound Castle, Props for Conversation

Masters Installation, AUT, Auckland 2007

One of the key themes that run through much of my work is the idea of creating visual codes in an attempt to represent the unseen,  the unheard or just things we don’t usually consider.

Selected by Axisweb for Text Category of the Week.  link https://www.axisweb.org/collections/m6f5hqg8ced7/

Painted found polystyrene packaging, black white flat acrylic paint, pins

2270mm x 2310mm x 400mm

Poem, font created from sound bands generated by spoken alphabet, Chinese inked paper on canvas cut-outs, photographs

1458 photos 128mm x 96mm each, Installation 2305mm x 7775mm

A cycle of encoding, deciphering and encoding.  A photo for each letter of a poem ordered first by word and then by stanza

Inaudible Recital

voice recordings (voice 1 Czech accent, voice 2 English accent, voice 3 New Zealand accent), Poem, sound vessels created from sound bands generated by spoken words translated into clear acrylic characters, shelved plaques, black white flat acrylic paint

each plaque 1950mm x 1200mm, installation 1950mm x 4000mm

Cardboard thread cones, 4 shades of black white flat acrylic paint, electrical cable

Installation entire floor space

Painted found polystyrene packaging, pins (on wall behind voice font alphabet painted with Chinese Ink)

Poem, Voice Font photographs (created from sound bands generated by spoken alphabet, Chinese inked paper on canvas cut-outs), pained Polystyrene packaging

Dimensions Variable
 

Installation with paper

1780mm x 7200mm

EDITIONS 'A book is an axis of endless relationships'. Jorge Luis Borges This was one of my earliest installations. The floor represents the spine of the book, each page directly bound in correct numbered sequence. The experience of reading is contrasted with that of reading the space between.

Symbolising the echo of a spoken word, this necklace is made from onyx, sapphire and an 18-karat gold pendant transcribed from the word ‘love’ spoken. The sound recording of the word love was transcribed into a solid object that was then cast in gold to create the pendant.

Materials: onyx beads, sapphire bead, 18-karat gold pendant

The Love Bite Necklace, together with Flying Poem and Spinning Poem, was featured in ArtAscent  June 2015 – Distinguished Artist Award