ART OMI writers
ghent usa fall 2019
Art Omi is a contemporary art, sculpture and architecture park in the heart of Columbia County, mid-way between New York and Boston, within sight of the Catskills.
The Writers Residency gathers as broad a stylistic, geographic and cultural group of artists as possible and this year I was privileged to be selected as an audio dramatist to represent Scotland among writers, poets, graphic novelists and translators from backgrounds as diverse as Sri Lanka, Catalonia, Cameroon, Denmark, Germany, the USA and the Philippines. (Main house with library / residency barn cottages)
The core belief at Omi is that exposure to internationally diverse creative voices fosters tolerance and respect, raises awareness, inspires innovation and ignites change.
Above all, the experience affirms the transformative power of art in all its forms.
audio / images / words
Audio and visual recordings resulting from encounters with a wide variety of extraordinary characters in New York, New Jersey and at Omi formed the framework for a series of interlinked scenes. These will become the basis for a novel following the travels of hitch-hiker Kat, a sofa-hopping homeless young drop-out who's being led astray by her inner voice - the voice of another fugitive. At the core of each character's tale is sound... both in the outside world and deep inside our mind.
"She's on her own, yes, but she's not alone. She has that voice in her head. The voice of an eccentric old man of the road she calls Feral. She despises him, like she despises anyone with power or influence over her.
Feral is also on the run. And he too hears voices.
Not only can we hear them all, layer upon layer, some of those voices turn out to be ours."
WRITERS RESIDENCY FALL 2019 FUNDED BY ART OMI, GHENT, NY 12075
TRAVEL FUNDED BY CREATIVE SCOTLAND