David Chesworth
In The Dark Wood... At The Bottom Of The Garden
1996
David Chesworth, In the dark wood... At the bottom of the garden, 1996, 8 channel audio, random replay. Gift of the artist through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2021. Photo courtesy the artist.
An early example of contemporary Australian sound art, David Chesworth’s In the dark wood... at the bottom of the garden, was originally commissioned by artist/curator John Meade for Flower Show at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne in 1996. Within McClelland sculpture park, the work occupies an interstitial space between garden and wilderness. Emanating from eight small speakers embedded in the bushland foliage, Chesworth’s cartoon-like sound effects suggest the presence and activities of tiny, mysterious inhabitants scurrying about in the undergrowth. At once familiar and strange, the work contemplates presences that exist beyond the rational.