Small Sounds, Small Memories (2019) spent shot gun cartridges, second-hand doily and audio. Photo: Garry Moore
Small Sounds, Small Memories is an installation of three spent shotgun cartridges arranged on a small second-hand doily found at an op-shop. The cartridges were given to me by a local activist who collected them from a farmed animal facility. I inserted small speakers into two of the cartridges. Found recordings of the voices of farmed animals are played through the small speakers, only audible to audiences who choose to put their ear down close to the objects.
In this work, I wanted to start to explore the possibilities of combining the two types of storytelling: found sound and found object. I am becoming increasingly interested in the potential of discarded objects from these industries as storytelling devices, hold latent memories and physical traces of the animal’s experience. In Small Sounds, Small Memories, I wanted to elevate the inherent violence that the used shotgun cartridge suggests and to activate the memory of the specific animal lost to these objects by playing recorded voices of farmed animals held in similar environments.