An Interruption

'An Interruption' was a sound installation exhibited in the foyer of the Foundling Museum, in October 2016. It formed part of the solo exhibition ‘Finding Foundlings’, which concluded an artist residency at the museum.

'An Interruption' was a sound piece, played on a speaker, embedded in a walnut plinth, built to the same dimensions as the museum’s long-case clocks. When it was exhibited, it appeared to be part of the room, blending into the background among the donation boxes and fire-extinguishers.

During the residency, the collection of long-case clocks became a central part of the experience of being in the museum. They are wound every day and the chimes ring throughout the building. The clocks were a constant reminder of time when in the building, and when Rachel undertook any recording, the clock chimes were always present.

The chiming is reminiscent of classroom registers and school timetables. In the artist residency workshops, the children called out their names and were noted as ‘present’. They named their foundling characters and were given new names. Rachel made a sound piece in response. The sound was formed from recordings made on completion of the workshops, listing of the names of the invented foundling characters. This naming was then edited in post-production to echo the clock chimes in the museum. The voices ringing out on the hour, quarter past, half past and quarter to.

During the artist residency closing event, attendees collected their glasses of wine from the foyer and lingered here; occasionally the children would interrupt their conversation – a play on the idea that children should be ‘seen and not heard’.

The sound: https://soundcloud.com/rachelemilytaylor/finding-foundlings-childrens-voices-as-clock-chimes

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