Sky­lark Song, 2016

Digit­al HD Video

03:50 mins

Com­mis­sioned by Work­place Gal­lery London

Vis­it­ors to the Gal­lery were invited to ask Coates ques­tions that pre­oc­cupy them and struggle to answer them­selves. This film is his answer to the ques­tion, ​“How do I make the best decisions when unsure of how to nav­ig­ate the unknowns?”. Coates adopts the song strategy of a sky­lark bird, attempt­ing not to repeat phrases, hes­it­ate and sus­tain this sound mak­ing for as long as pos­sible. In order to do this he uses his full range of vocal­isa­tion to cre­ate a con­tinu­ous, self gen­er­at­ing series of expres­sions. The evolving sounds are determ­ined from/​by them­selves rather than by ration­al think­ing or a con­scious scheme.