madeleine flynn and tim humphrey

DarkQuiet Bundanon 2022

Nearly out in the world.

Image credit: Letterbox and Jody Haines

https://www.bundanon.com.au/whats-on/darkquiet-overnight/

Too bright. Too loud.

Noise and the glare of spectacle are overwhelming human and non-human alike.  DarkQuiet seeks to refocus ways of experiencing the rich complexity and fragility of the world.

Artists Madeleine Flynn, Jennifer Hector and Tim Humphrey are developing a set of principles and an evolving methodology, to create responses to site; to experience what is already there, those human and non-human beings lurking and waiting for the crepuscular and nocturnal opportunities that may only be seen when the lights and the volume are turned down. We feel that our skills as artists are being hijacked for spectacle.

DarkQuiet re-focusses our senses [in a series of bespoke attunement spaces] through darkening/quietening experiences; attuning ourselves to the wonders that are subtly present in a space. With plenty of time to adjust, there will be time to get rowdy quietly. To see in the dark. And the rewards will come.

DarkQuiet will be first presented at Bundanon Art Museum in December 2022. There it is a wayfinding exercise, a sonic-visual experience within and outside a series of attunement spaces. DarkQuiet Bundanon includes an overnight experience for people to attune themselves to the nocturnal, navigating through a field calibrated to heighten our excitement for the subtle. It takes place within the outdoor, semi-bushland setting on the Shoalhaven River. A series of attunement spaces are designed and oriented specifically for this location. People navigate a field using red light to minimise impact on the environment and encounter different attunement spaces over the course of an evening, extending into the early morning.

DarkQuiet as an approach to artmaking can be applied to many settings, urban or regional, human and non-human. The artists are keen to apply DQ methodology in creating responses within urban settings.

DarkQuiet is Madeleine Flynn, Jen Hector, Tim Humphrey and Erin Milne, Bureau of Works.