SONIC ACTIVATIONS OF THE RAKE

A site-specific commission to respond sonically to a room at Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing, in which the eight prints of Hogarth’s Rakes Progress were hanging. Curated by Marcus Orlandi, Props and Propositions, the Body as Sculpture, 2014, also featured performances by Jefford Horrigan, Louisa Ashcroft, Julia Hayes, Alys Hughes, Lily Johnson and Ilona Sagar. The work involved contact microphones on objects (tape measure, bucket, bottle and glass, chains, keys, paper scrolls, money and a dice) and a small dancing master’s violin or pochette, kindly loaned by Ben Stevens, on which was played Bobbing Joe, a tune from Playford’s English Country Dances from the 1651 edition. John Soane, architect and erstwhile resident at Pitzhanger bought Hogarth’s original series of paintings (of 1733-4) in 1802. They now hang in the John Soane museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.