Pak-Keung
Wan
Empties, 2001
An extract from a temporary site-specific audio-visual installation commissioned by Q-Arts for the HART 2001 festival. Installed at Grosvener Mill which borders the River Humber, Kingston-upon Hull, UK
A point of departure for this piece grew out from imagining the fog that is said to often envelop the river Humber and the sound of the foghorn that are used as warning signals.
I wanted to create a work that connected this place with my own day-to-day environment.
Walking around Northampton I felt an empathy towards the empty bottles that litter the streets, thinking that if only the wind would catch each bottle at the right angle a chorus could be heard ringing through the parks and alleyways.
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Grosvener Mill was a large, damp and darkened space and during the exhibition I imagined this sound cutting through the fog on the River Humber and resounding out across the sea.