Excavating Silence

Excavating Silence was a site-specific sound art installation exhibited at the Addington Children’s Hospital. The hospital, which opened in 1931 as a facility for all races, eventually closed in the 1980’s due to the Group Areas Act which was a law initiated during the apartheid regime to segregate the different racial groups of South Africa. The basis of this artwork considers the histories and context of the hospital as a starting point for creative enquiry. The work was created with sound recordings of members of the public who visited the hospital during their childhood. Anecdotes, stories and experiences were summoned to form a collective memory, which was presented through the medium of sound. These resonant human emotions and memories intersect the cold decay and abandonment of the building, and its historical past.