From Source to Mouth
Come Hell or High Water, April 2020

From Source to Mouth was a form of Aeolian harp, seven 80m golden ribbons, responding to the wind, shuddering and shivering, sinking in and out of the water over several tides and through sunrises and sunsets. This installation was perceived as a way to create live and present voices from the foreshore, holding the space during the height of Covid lockdown and whispering or shouting to anyone who happened to be passing.
During April, Cooper Gallery, Dundee commissioned a sound work, as part of Hear, Here. This work became From Mouth to Source. The text for the gallery invitation to listen to the work read:

From Mouth to Source

 An inside/outside stream meeting between.

This sound-work originated with an installation, From Source to Mouth, an aeolian harp of 7 strings, each 80 metres long, strung over Limehouse foreshore, so the wind and river had a voice, during the depth of Covid disquiet. The strings were partially ‘swallowed’ twice a day by the high tide and buffeted by gusts and breezes. In Aramaic, wind, breath and spirit are the same word.
The work was installed by Anne Bean and recorded and then composed by Nicol Parkinson.

Instruction
Whilst listening to this recording through your ears, listen also inside your ears to your own river. Swirl and suck your spit-stream around your mouth, tongue, cheeks and throat, creating your own tides and eddies so that the outside expanse of sound is connected to the action inside your mouth. Listen at a volume and/or through a device that best balances for you the inside/outside sounds.