This Thurs (5th Feb) my piece Distortions will be performed at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff.  The work is a response to a video installation by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler entitled The Unreliable Narrator, which features in the Artes Mundi 6 exhibition.

The duo’s artwork deals with the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks which lasted for four days and left the city scarred.  Mirza and Butler compiled CCTV footage, recordings of terrorist phone calls, video of the terrorists interrogation, and scenes from a Bollywood film based on the events which took place.  Over the top sounds the voice of a female narrator.  The work highlights the ways in which a tragic event can become a media circus, leaving people in doubt as to which version of events to believe, and giving rise to the question of who is in control:  The terrorists or the media.

Distortions is scored for a quartet of oboe, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, cello and percussion.