Exhibition preview: Richard T Walker – In Defiance of Being Here, Carroll / Fletcher, London, until April 13 2013
Richard T Walker, let this be us (2012-14)© Richard T Walker / Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
On the devices, a single key – activated by a rock – play a single note of Richard T Walker’s voice, looping repeatedly to form a sparse, abstract chord from his disembodied vocals.
Walker, who is based in San Francisco, has spent days in the American west for this lament within landscape, talking, singing and playing to a spectacular terrain which he sees as increasingly distant and resolutely unresponsive.
He worries about it, debates with it, argues and declares his love for it, positioning himself as a lonely romantic.
“It seems, to me, that music, text and dialogue are three of the main instruments we have to determine our existence in the world,” he muses, singing, clapping, playing acoustic guitar and beating a parade drum.
“They are tools, along with the visual, that we use to come to understand things. Arguably, they are the tools that enable things to exist, including ourselves.”
Canyons, mountains, dust plains and rocky outcrops make for a seductive backdrop to Walker’s gently witty pursuit of harmony between man and nature.
- Carroll / Fletcher, Eastcastle Street, London. Open 11am-7pm (6pm Saturday, closed Sunday). Admission free. Follow the gallery on Twitter @carrollfletcher.
More pictures:
let this be us (2012-13)© Richard T Walker / Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
proximity of longing© Richard T Walker / Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
outside of all things (2013)© Richard T Walker / Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
outside of all things (2013)© Richard T Walker / Carroll / Fletcher, 2012
