This page gives examples of the range of projects Gris has
been involved with over the years from audio-visual collaborations,
performance work to composing for film and sound sculptures.
To view and listen to the audio and video clips, you will
require a Quicktime or Windows
Media Player player.
You can download one free by clicking here; - Quicktime | Windows
Media Player
Nailsworth Festival Audio/Visual Youth Project
The aims of this project were to produce a piece of
audio/visual art in collaboration with Nailsworth
Youth Group for showings as part of Nailsworth’s
annual arts festival and to encourage the young people
of Nailsworth in their understanding of the value
of art in everyday life by giving them first-hand
experience of the practicalities and creative decision-making
involved when making a piece.
By working alongside established artists the intention
was to pull together creative ideas, technical skills
and aesthetic judgement, culminating in a piece of
work that genuinely reflected the time and place,
the context of the festival and the collaborative
efforts of all those involved.
While the children themselves generated
much of the video and sound footage, video artist
Tom Addy facilitated the visual aspect of the project,
gathering his own material and editing the contributions
of the youngsters. Gris Sanderson focused on the sonic
elements, co-ordinating the efforts of the children
who recorded their own contributions to create four
themed sound sections in stereo to work alongside
the video.
The resulting piece lasts 12 minutes. It is a durational
work that can be looped to run for as long as is deemed
suitable for a non-seated audience to freely come
and go as they please and can be shown in a variety
of contexts. For instance, it has been projected onto
a 15’ x 15’ screen at The Junction (Nailsworth
youth club) and as an installation on video at the
Prema Arts Centre, Uley, in Gloucestershire. Both
of these showings took place between April 25th and
May 5th 2003 as part of the Nailsworth Festival.
Cave Music was commissioned by Kent’s Cavern,
Torquay, as part of the BBC Live Festival in May 2000.
Kent’s cavern is an excavated cave system containing
fossilised cave bears and sabre-toothed tigers alongside
evidence of human habitation dating back to the stone-age
and beyond. It is situated in Torquay in South Devon
and is run as a visitor attraction for those keen
to learn of local ancient history and to view the
beautiful stalagmite and stalactite formations.
The concept behind this project was to site musicians
within the various chambers while visitors toured
the cave system.
Cave Music was devised in collaboration with French
composer Jean David Caillouët and performed in
the Cavern every twenty minutes over a four-day period
as visitors were led on an exploratory expedition
of the cave system. It took place within one of the
largest chambers of Kent’s Cavern where the
temperature was even, but cool and humid. Water dripped
through limestone, down the walls and onto uneven
red earth. Smaller caves led off into unexplored areas
and twisted passages linked with other chambers of
the cave system.
Jean David and Griselda experimented within the space
to find sounds that worked in an acoustic that had
sounds echoing and bouncing in all directions due
to the uneven nature of the rocky surroundings. Over
several evenings drips and humanly constructed sounds
were recorded in the cavern and some time was spent
in the studio creating a form for the piece. That
recording was then returned to the cave and work began
on the live element using bones, terracotta whistles
and flutes, small Eastern bells and bamboo percussion,
as well as viola. Bells, gongs wind and string sounds
complemented one another. Small percussive sounds
worked well alongside more sustained ones, building
up layers that reverberated in the shadows. The shape
of the chamber, with its raised areas and passageways
leading off encouraged the use of space and movement
in the performance. In the time of the ancient cave-dwellers
light came from burning moss mixed with tallow placed
in scallop shells. These lamps and some candles were
all that lit the chamber throughout the performances.
Miss
Julie
In 1998 Griselda was involved in composing and performing
music in the style of traditional Swedish dance music
for the film based on the Strindberg play Miss Julie
by British film director Mike Figgis (Time Code, Leaving
Las Vegas) starring Saffron Burrows, Peter Mullan,
Eileen Walsh and Heathcote Williams. Her collaborators
on this project were the musicians Christian Weaver
and Sianed Jones. The film went on general release
on December 10th, 1999.
Waulk Elektrik
In 1989 she formed the group Waulk Elektrik with her
brother Larry Sanderson and Peter Bingham. Four albums
were released; Waulk Elektrik (1992), Uprooted (1994,
recorded at Sawmills studio in Cornwall and produced
by Sam Williams), House Music (1997) and Um-Di-Um
(1998).
Comprising guitarist Nigel Challis, Drummers Chris
Pope and Kordian Tetkov and mandolin player/percussionist
James Dumbelton the band focused on combining traditional
and original Scottish and Irish music and the dance
music of the period, with its emphasis on rave culture
and the club music scene. The band performed at festivals
arts centres and venues throughout the UK and had
airplay on European radio stations and across the
Atlantic in Canada and the US. Waulk Elektrik performed
at WOMAD, Glastonbury, Isle of Arran, Rootin’
Aboot (at Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree) and the Cropredy
festivals, entertaining audiences from Galloway to
St.Ives in Cornwall.
See the Waulk Records page to listen to samples and to order online.
The Susato Consort
In the early 1980s she was a member of the early
music group The Susato Consort based in Cambridge
with whom she played the treble viol along with
Elizabeth Wood (soprano), Paul Brophy (countertenor),
George Smerdon (tenor), Roger Carpenter (bass),
Christine Carpenter (alto recorder), Michael Turnbull
(tenor recorder), Sandy MacPherson (lute), Marj
Winter (bass viol) and Glenn Pollard (sackbut).
Songs of Innocence &
Experience In 2003 Griselda was the violinist in the
premiere of Songs of Innocence & Experience,
settings of William Blake’s poems of the same
name by composer Colin Hodgetts at the One Week
in Summer Festival in Hartland, North Devon. Other
musicicians included the singer Angela Henckel.
Click on the stills below to view a bigger image
This sound sculpture was designed specifically for
the pebble pool in the Italian garden at Dartington
Hall in 1999. The pulley-system enabled the sounding
chimes to dip into the pool and change pitch.
