BRAD DARKSON
songlines
VL Commodore tape deck car stereo, headphones, cassette tape, MDF plinth, acrylic paint, glass beads,
sound duration (Side A) 40min21sec, (Side B) 40min21sec.
songlines complete sound
exhibition works
Photographs courtesy Brianna Speight
Curatorial Rationale
Songs to uncover what is there, FELTspace
2024
Steeped in nostalgia, Brad Darkson’s songlines (2024) invokes memories of family car trips, and the limited soundtracks available, in a time before unlimited access to playlists through streaming services. Darkson has recreated the monotony and familiarity of fortnightly travel between his mother and father’s houses, Semaphore to Maccelsfield regularly. The soundtrack, broken lines from songs, the hook, the famous bars and nothing more, mirrors the way we fade in and out of songs as we drive the same roads, over and over letting our minds wander.
songlines captures an experience familiar to many people. For my family, it was drives to my Nono and Nana’s house on a Saturday night, every Saturday night, for family dinner. The soundtrack was from the 1960s and 70s, the radio always on Saturday Night Jukebox. The songs of my childhood are anachronistic, being recorded 20-30 years before they became so synonymous with family. But they are also the songs my parents listened to growing up, forging links between our childhoods though they are separated by many years. For Darkson, these drives connect two households, each different but familiar, but also they connect him to his siblings, parents and all of us who have made those regular trips.
- Eleanor Scicchitano
Eleanor is the Director of Post Office Projects in Port Adelaide