Nike Savvas (Australia / UK)

Anthem 2006 (Is That All There Is?)

Ada Street Gallery, Thursday 25 – Monday 29 May 2006

Anthem 2006, commissioned by Wild Gift, used PJ Harvey’s version of 'Is That All There Is?' as source material. Savvas interpreted the beats, instruments and vocals of the song using choreographic sequences of specially chosen disco lights. There was no sound save that of the lighting equipment itself.

This work launched Wild Gift I, and continued as a rolling loop of six and a half minutes – the length of the song - playing for six hours each day for the first four days of Wild Gift I.

Anthem presents a dance floor without music, or a stage without action. But the difference between its rhythm and the source of light, and those of a nightclub light show, was apparent. Anthem was not electronically geared to the music, but painstakingly hand-programmed according to the artist’s idea of the song. To be in this silent space was mesmeric, eerie, sublime: it seemed a study of self, and of the silence upon which all music depends.

Anthem 2006 differed from previous ‘Anthem’ pieces by Savvas in being presented in relation to live performance. While not a traditional performance per se, it was an important piece for Wild Gift to include, with its theatricality and its reliance on absence and presence.

To a large extent it encapsulated the style Wild Gift I represented: the wedding of spectacle, ease and deep seriousness; the relation of performance and other kinds of art at that time.


Thanks to
Joe Coles (for suggesting the song)
Dave Black (for programming, rigging and electrical work)
Entec Sound and Light
Ivana Bobic, Julia Calver, Raina Chamberlain, Simon Lewis, Theresa Liang, Maia Naveriani, Anna Maria Pinaka, Anne Sellars, Anita Wernström-Pitcher
Joy Sleeman
Stuart King (Electrical Inspector)