PENDULUM (The Nurturer and the Devourer)
The sound poem 'The Nurturer and the Devourer' was conceptualised as the performance piece 'Pendulum' which utilised the concept of a swinging pendulum as the words were spoken in time to the decaying of the motion of the swing. The pendulum (a lit mirror) was dowsed over the body of the human, a symbol of the unceasing power of time and motion over humanity. A live feed of the lit mirror was projected onto stage and backdrop. The piece was performed and recorded as a rehearsal at the Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins, London in 2025
The sound poem was written and composed in response to Dylan Thomas’ The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower (1933). His poem explores the relationship between time, creation, and destruction and the manifestation of the elemental force of Nature - in response I point to the possible instinctual drive of humanity to destroy itself. I use the term flower in reference to Hegel’s flower in the Phenomenology of Spirit ' The bud becomes the flower, the flower is what the bud was always going to turn into. It represents the completion of the bud's destiny'. What I hope to infer is that the flower is not the end result but that it drives the cycle also of its own destruction - and as we are part of Nature we are also have that drive -that nurturer, but also that devourer. The urge that drives the bee that dies from stinging - the bee is driven to protect and procreate and will sting to continue to do so, but this sting will also kill it. The rhythm that undulates until no ringing - the reverb of sound as a metaphor of the continuous breath that ultimately peters out to silence. That penetrates in receiving - the breath that is given is also taken away, just as the knife that penetrates once taken out, kills. The force that through the flesh breaks the sky, the sky that drives the flesh to want to die - The human instinct to survive, procreate, progress, expand is also its road to the end, the sky is driving us also to this end - the welcome the goodbye - both part of the cycle.
Recording of sound poem "The Nurturer and the Devourer' (audio only)
Pendulum - Performance rehearsal. Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins, London 2025
