bw 13

transcript |  clips on careen | up

Female voice: ….Molehead. Songs and images engulf my mind. The smell is intoxicating. Busy streets passing by. One dollar! Two pence! It is the Careenage!

Male voice: Dock, dock, port! Careenage! Dock, dock, port! Careenage! Dock, dock, port! Careenage.

Female voice: 1809! Choked by mud! A history of the past is reminiscent. A vision appears. Mud and stepping-stones. I see the ships a-sailing, floating into the wharf front, gold and trading, offloading and promenading. The air is filled with rich scents of molasses and onions. Molasses and onions.

Second female voice: Onions.

Third female voice: Molasses

Second female voice: Onions.

Third female voice: Molasses.

First female voice: Shifts occur. It is the twenty-first century, and I smell texture. I feel life! It is a vessel of passing visitors. The Chamberlain Bridge, where objects murmur. The boardwalk! An edition has stationary dreamers. The Careenage has become a pathway of flexibility.

Female voice: Boardwalk Soft! Sweet!

artist profile | gail pounder-speede | up

As a background to her soundscape, Gail Pounder-Speede states that “In the 17th century the land below the Chamberlain Bridge was flooded. Large stones were placed on the waterfront creating a pathway called the “stepping stones”. The pier head was named the “mole head” because it was choked by mud. In1770, the British government gave 5000 pounds to rebuild the careenage which was constructed in 1837-1846 by the Royal Engineers. The boardwalk was created in 1999 and opened in 2002.” She goes on to say that her sound art is “a pilgrimage; it moves through time and shifts from the careenage to the pier head and ends at the boardwalk.” Her work includes “clips of images, smells and sounds” that were discovered during her exploration of the careen. The music used in this sound art is an original score by Cleton Jr Haynes.

Gail Pounder-Speede holds an Associate degree in Applied Arts and a BFA from the Barbados Community College. She is now pursuing a Masters degree in educational management from Leicester University in England. She is a practicing multi-media installation artist and currently teaches art at Harrison College in Barbados. Her work has been exhibited in England, USA, Suriname, and Barbados.