PARTICIPATION
earmaginations On-site & Online June 7th
Pinehurst, Now
In 2003, I crashed free from 17 years of navigating New York City’s dense urbanity, and landed in Pinehurst, in California’s Sequoia National Forest. My life was changed in every sense, and an urgent crisis of identity followed: what kind of a musician should I become? A wholly new perspective on sound and listening emerged from my new home. I learned to discern between voices of birds within species; I could identify the make of neighbors’ trucks rumbling up the road; I finally became aware of my own tinnitus. Sounds became markers, sources of specific information for tracking, predicting, and contextual knowledge. No longer layered and mashed together, as city noise was, sounds in the country came mostly one at a time, to be studied, captured, and appreciated as much as their visual counterparts. “Pinehurst, Now” is an open window onto my world, where viewers can hear one sound at a time, interleaved by echoes from the now-distant city, which become quieter as each year passes.
Mahalia LoMele pursued a freelance career working with singers, instrumentalists, and theatrical productions in New York City after earning a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. In 2003 she left the city to carve out a very different life with her partner, artist Bachrun LoMele, in the California Sierra Nevada foothills. The quiet forest environment of her home has led her to explorations of sound and the potential of its deeper meanings. Her current projects include sound-making from the strings of the piano using plumbing hardware, and creative writing. African dance, which she began studying in New York, continues to be a centering expression of the creativity of the body.
Artist Location: Pinehurst, CA
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