Lou Sheppard, Dawn Chorus, Bow Valley (score) (2024)

Walter Phillips Gallery is thrilled to present Dawn Chorus, Evensong (Bow River Valley), a newly commissioned audio-based work with accompanying visual scores by Canadian artist Lou Sheppard to be exhibited this summer in Banff Centre’s Shaw Amphitheatre. This seven-channel audio installation is a continuation of a previous body of work commissioned for the 2019 edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Informed by the concept of the biophony, or sounds made by organisms within a given ecosystem, Dawn Chorus, Evensong (Bow River Valley) seeks to amplify and respond to the chorus of creatures audible on Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain at dawn and at dusk, times of increased activity in the forest. The installation will be activated twice daily for one hour at 8 AM and 8 PM as well as subtly sounding intermittently throughout the day. The activation of the work also takes place at what might be understood as queer times of day, when visibility is lessened and ramifications of normative conceptions of gender perhaps less pervasive. Dawn Chorus, Evensong (Bow River Valley) is suggestive of the power of collective sounding as present within a biophony, where the pitches of a creature’s calls can allow them to be heard or concealed. The work’s location in the man-made structure of the Shaw Amphitheatre as well as within the natural acoustic bowl created by the mountains makes use of these overlapping architectures for listening, amplification and transmission.

Dawn Chorus Evensong (Bow River Valley) is made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Government of Canada, and Government of Alberta.