Billy's Swan

2017-11-07

Smith, Paul

First exhibited with animation, Billy's Swan, at MaySpace Gallery 7-24 November, 2017
Provenance:
Delineation, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn, VIC, 16 March - 5 May 2019
(Finalist) Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize 2018, Noosa Regional Gallery, 19 October - 2 December 2018
(Finalist) Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize, Lismore Regional Gallery, 28 July - 23 September 2018
(Finalist) Paul Guest Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Vic, 30 June - 9 September 2018
(Finalist) Swan Hill National Print and Drawing Awards, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, VIC, 12 May - 15 July 2018
(Finalist) 9th Annual Drawing Discourse Exhibition, University of North Carolina Asheville, USA, 19 January - 23 February 2018
Acquired by the Elliott Eyes Collection, 2017

Original Creative Works - Other

en

Publication

May Space

Sydney, Australia

une:1959.11/31459

Billy’s Swan is an electroacoustic work which assesses the fantastic escapism that dance can offer the young queer male identity. The audio adopts routine melodic fragments from Tchaikovsky’s ballet score, Swan Lake, and sets these against expressive digital sounds. The fantastic element is symbolised by a sprawling climax of bells chimes (sounds with queer potential) that develop as the piece progresses and the fragments of ballet score fade out. The piece uses musical traditions of arrangement and transcription coupled with the social and political meanings of different sound worlds to consider queer identities.

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