Work
ICON
for trombone and projected film
About
ICON presents a making ready––or making real––of the trombonist and trombone. The idea of performance practice brings with it an anticipation that arises from historically repeated cause-and-effect chains: we see a certain gesture and expect a certain sounding result, etc. This work decouples the instrument from the performer, the sound from the gesture, and the real from the virtual, and in doing so, allows the performer to become a site for the exploration of the body as signifier (or disingenuous initiator) in performance. ICON brings into question the role of characterised portrayal within the context of a cultural canon, and explores notions of obsessive, fixated, and disjunctive personal presentations.
'ICON' was the co-winner of the second prize at the 2018 Lilburn Trust NZSM Composers Competition.