White Sound Anne Reynolds
A swirling haze of choking fumes catches my throat on Euston Road as stuttering streams of cars and trucks negotiate the flow, where wailing sirens blend with roaring combustion engines and pallid trees nurtured in the din of metal and rubber exhale oxygen and then, that certain sound – the urgent hssssswhhha fuuuhhhh of the sea in retreat, silent beats then rising, rushing forward to crash down on Chesil Beach and spill from speakers across the pavement as the edges of reality smudge nudged from City purpose to ozone-drenched winds where the rhythm of tides tumbles flint and chert in froth and burble rolling them smooth as worry beads pulse slowing, muscles slackening an outlander dissolving on the streets of London.
‘White Sound’ was a sound Installation by Bill Fontana at the Wellcome Institute on the Euston Road 22.09.11-16.10.11. The live sound of waves crashing onto Chesil Beach was fed through speakers fixed to the building. 37
