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Posted: 2022-08-25 07:39:27

The third, final element of Kaldor’s latest project is a “sonic bridge” between Kngwarreye and LeWitt, made up of three separate musical works, each a collaboration between an Australian First Nations composer and an American counterpart.

Musicians Chuck Johnson and JW Paton, pictured in front of Sol LeWitt’s wall painting, met for the first time in Sydney after months collaborating remotely on their new composition.

Musicians Chuck Johnson and JW Paton, pictured in front of Sol LeWitt’s wall painting, met for the first time in Sydney after months collaborating remotely on their new composition.Credit:Louise Kennerley

American musician Chuck Johnson and Yuin musician JW [Josh] Paton have called their contribution Tangled Mirror Yarn.

They only met for the first time this week but have been collaborating for months, exchanging ideas and sound files between Oakland, California, and western Sydney.

“I was onboard with the project immediately,” Johnson said. “It sounded so good. Josh would process some files that I sent, and vice versa. And then we ended up coming up with not exactly a start to finish for the 40-minute piece but just like a rough idea of what sounds belonged where and the timeline.”

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One of the ideas the pair has tried to encapsulate from the work is the sense of disorientation experienced by the team installing it.

“There are moments in the music, where we’re trying to emphasise that feeling of overwhelmed disorientation and distortion, as well as moments of relief, stepping back from that,” Johnson said.

Paton was particularly affected by the story of Kngwarreye’s influence on LeWitt.

“I didn’t know about Sol and his affinity for Emily’s work and it was nice to hear that actually happened,” he said. “People tell the story in different ways but the way I’m interpreting it is that he didn’t really see her as an Indigenous artist or othered into primitive arts or something. It was more like, ‘This is a peer’. I thought that was really powerful.”

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