Biography

Pony Horseman is an interdisciplinary artist, working through and between sound/vocal performance/experimental composition/performance art/visual art/poetry and creative writing/costume and fashion/modeling and theatre/installation. They Majored in classical voice at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and have participated in a residencies and mentorships in Adelaide and interstate.

They have exhibited and performed in a variety of settings, including The Art Gallery of NSW as part of Fools Gold, which brought together poets who had experienced the barriers in the medical model dealing with trauma, oppression and mental distress. As well as through written and visual mediums, Pony performs their poetry often. They compose and arrange to facilitate collaboration, with materials, such as audience whispering words of shame. Intersecting the space with very little physical material, but with community support is part of Pony’s method to gain access to meaningful expression and facilitate meaningful expression. Conceptually their work aims to subvert dominant culture, by holding space. Pony asks how individuals want to be seen as opposed to how they are read in the context of dominant culture.

Composer website:  https://soundcloud.com/ponyhorseman

Featured Works

First Time Recorders, for 13 prepared ‘dollar store’ toy recorders.

If we trace histories of organised sounds, its interesting how we perceive not only dissonance and consonance, but the value and beauty of sounds. The recorder is seen in a certain way through a dominant cultural lense, its association with childhood, its association with learning and our attitudes towards this. To me this sound is beautiful, the sound and texture of harmony going in and out, of the repetition, the interplay.

Thank you to my ensemble of audience participants ranging from never having played a ‘musical’ instrument before, to having played a similar instrument, or played in primary school, who informed their first time playing one of my recorders with their rich varied histories. Your inherent skills, listening to each other and holding space for one another, is embodied in the sound of this piece.
Duchamp did say “poor tools require better skills,” to which i say firstly, what makes a tool ‘poor’ is contextual; secondly : what a skill it is, to increase awareness of other’s needs.

Featured in Fragile Waves, June 2018