Thresheld

Thresheld is collaborative audio/visual installation by Kit and their child N, who was 13 at the time. Drawing on themes of shapeshifting within Irish/Scottish/Nordic folklore, Kit’s experience of fluidity as a queer non-binary person, and N’s experience of adolescence, this work was created collaboratively as a way of marking and honouring N’s coming-of-age. Grounded in an intergenerational exchange around themes of transformation, identity, adaptability, and kinship, this project experiments with marking significant milestones in the lives of young people through art-making—integrating ritual and reflection into a transitional phase of life that is both universal and frequently overlooked, while playfully weaving in ancestral lineages and ecological wisdom.

The soundscape is composed of field recordings from local seal spots visited regularly, seaweed on rocks, underwater (hydrophone) recordings of intertidal zones & underwater singing, N’s voice, violin, bass pedals, electric guitar, and various instruments, heartbeats and moving water. This work was designed to be shown in various iterations; in a gallery setting as a sound piece, screened as a video, and hosted on a website so that visitors can watch the video and/or listen to and interact with the soundscape, shaping it by manipulating volume faders attached to different tracks.

This work was supported by the Center for Art Tapes (CFAT) & the Media Arts Scholarship and was shown as part of the exhibition Unlike a Hippopotamus, a Bird via VUCAVU (online) and in person at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax, 2022.