Artists in residence Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges were selected for a VARC Entwined residency in Northumberland based at Tarset Village Hall in May 2021. Their initial idea was to work with the Song Reivers Community Choir who use the hall, to investigate layers of place through sonification and voicing. However, the hall could not be used during their residency due to Covid restrictions. Robbie and Jo’s response was to use the external hall notice boards to communicate the words of This is Home, by Sophia Efthimiou, a song from the repertoire of the Song Reivers Community Choir.
“I so often find myself looking outside of myself (mostly forward) to find a sense of completion, of rest, of belonging. I wrote this song as a mantra to remind myself that I am always at home.”
The words in the noticeboards changed each day over the course of 8 days to reveal the lyrics of the song. Even though the choir was not able to use the hall for the social act of singing, the work was able to reveal some of the emotional landscapes present and to explore how creative work, even during a pandemic, can help maintain connections between individuals, community and place.
The voice you can hear is the wonderful Kathyrn Davidson Armstrong, who recorded this for the Song Reiver’s Community Choir so they could learn and sing together during lockdown.
