sound before symbol
fay nicolson

Spa Songs (Wet Mix) available at Daata Editions

DKUK is pleased to present Sound Before Symbol, an exhibition of new works by Fay Nicolson.

Sound Before Symbol emerges from a long term exploration of aesthetic education and its transformative potential as a hands-on method of learning. Fay focuses on embodied knowledge and ways it can be accumulated, shared and valued. Over the past two years Fay’s practice has expanded from­ image and performance to explore the voice and polyphony. Whether visual, spatial or sonic, gestural and physical modes of making inform each other to establish an aesthetic project which exists beyond the autonomy of any single object.

In Sound Before Symbol Fay re-imagines the DKUK salon as an expanded musical score, using the room’s horizontal display system to host clusters of abstract musical visualisations. This gestural language depicts elements of Fay’s compositions and the ways she will teach them to a group of performers.

Sound Before Symbol aims to visualise and choreograph musical relationships emphasising the value of experience and experimentation in developing musical understanding. In preparation for this project Fay has researched pedagogical methods, specifically The Dalcroze and Kodály methods. Supported by an a-n bursary Fay has undertaken a course in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, focusing on developing innate musicality through rhythmic movement, ear training and improvisation.

Event: Spa Songs The Brunel Museum, 10 September 8-9pm

Spa Songs, a new performance will be taking place at the Brunel Museum 10 September, 2018. Spa Songs is a work of voice and movement arranged for 8 performers. Fay composed this song cycle as an intuitive and abstract response to Bermondsey and certain motifs that recur throughout its history (communities of retreat, tidal rhythms of flooding and burning, polyphony and palimpsest).

Performers: Alistair Coffee, Rachel Horwood, Sarah Johns, Sophie Mallett, Jenny Moore, Colleen O’Brien, Louise O’Connor.

Fay Nicolson (b. Derby 1984) graduated from the Royal College of Art 2011 and CSM 2006. She lives and works in London.