Edinburgh Napier University

  20 channel voice recording. Audio speakers.

The huge oceanic swells that hit the western European coast bring visitors from all over the world to experience the surfing. These great breakers have their origins in the Atlantic storms that blast the Eastern seaboard of North America and the Caribbean. The weather systems whip the sea into waves which combine together as they travel, gaining in size, speed and energy, until they finally make landfall thousands of miles to the east.

In this work, an array of twenty speakers commands the floor of the exhibition space. Each speaker emits a discrete sound: a vocal recording by the artist of the weather forecasts from different maritime locales along the American east coast. As with the wave-forms themselves, the words - clear and meaningful when heard in isolation - combine in a swell of sound, an undulating and dramatic hiss that fills the space like the distant sound of breaking waves.

Storm Piece was shown at "Life and Times: A Changing Landscape" at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata in March 2017; and at "Storm Piece by Paul Holmes", Galeria Wagner, Ericeira in July 2017.

Duration: 21 minutes. Looped.