'Splintered' exhibit joins sound and text

Throughout the Skagit Valley are a number of 100-plus year old barns. These structures’ forms are reminders of times past and present, where work takes place in its many qualities.

The Carson sisters, Amy and Katie, have such a barn on their property, on the southeast corner of Best and Calhoun Roads, built in the first quarter of the past century. It has lived through many lives: cattle, hay, storage, mechanical works, flowers, art and now wood shop and painting studio as well as their place of business involving international crafts, Bitters Co.

Those who enter the barn are awe struck by the enormity and airiness of the space – this includes Shin Yu Pai (poet) and Steve Peters (sound artist). The two of them were inspired to create a site specific sound and text installation in the barn’s hay loft. Over the winter they visited multiple times to record and write.

“Splintered” is the result: a multi-channel sound and text installation heard in fragments scattered around the space. Isolated words and phrases perpetually recombine to create new associations and images. The text is combined with similarly fragmented recordings of objects encountered in the barn – various items from Bitters Co.’s inventory (glass, metal, ceramics) as well as parts of the structure itself.

During June their collaborative work will occupy the space in an audibly, without much to obscure the openness of the hay loft visually, other than a pair of benches to sit on while taking it all in.