The Wall of Sounds.. final artwork

Cut cardboard, analogue cassette tapes, acrylic paint and digital retouching

A portrait of Hayden Dewar made by cutting away at the card sleeves of analogue cassette tapes to reveal the history beneath.

Skot Edwards has meticulously catalogued hundreds of these tapes for over fifteen years. During the long period over which Hayden painted the large mural on the sidewall of the Richmond Dimmeys store, Skot gave him many of these tapes.

While producing this mural Hayden felt exposed; in a thoroughfare for shoppers and train commuters, being enclosed by the music channelled through a large pair of headphones, enabled him to feel a little less naked.

This poster is metaphoric. The tapes are laid out like brickwork, referencing “The Wall”, the urban canvas confronting Hayden. The colourful marks around the eyes resonate of the music, and the cutting away of the card inserts to reveal the dark tones of the tapes underneath represent the feeling of being exposed or naked.

There are two creative outcomes as a result of this process. The first, a two-dimensional artwork for a poster, the second is an installation, a piece with a living history, made of scratched dusty plastic and meticulously hand marked card.