Michael Campbell: Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting

Field recordings of icebergs melting.

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For the last few years I have been keeping a studio on a small west-coast island. Daily I walk the shoreline and pick through the changing collection of eroded iron, rock, wood, bits of aluminum, nets, nails, spark plugs, two by fours, boat engines, boat fragments and crates. I am interested in the objects built to withstand the ocean’s energy; such as barges, wharfs and flat bottom oyster boats. These structures carry a history of continual maintenance in an attempt to remain functional for as long as possible.

The series Field recordings of icebergs melting has been constructed from salvaged materials gathered and assembled into a flotilla of vessels. Each object suggests a practical purpose that combines Victorian-industrial iron and steam practicality merged with contemporary and future technologies. These vessels carry a physical history of damage, repair and patching far beyond a given life expectancy. Every object appears to be functioning and sustained, but just barely.

Field Recordings shares a link with filmic and historical mythologies of the idiosyncratic and battered ships; including the African Queen, the Civil war battleship Monitor, Ernest Shackleton’s Endeavor, The Millenium Falcon, Franklin’s Erebus and Terror, the army of apocalyptic cars from the Road Warrior, and Jimmy Stuart’s hybrid aeroplane in The Flight of the Phoenix.

The core material in this series has been: driftwood, steel, copper, tin, brass, aluminum and thousands of nails.

Michael Campbell Homepage

Globe and Mail review

Chronology

The Janice May 2007