Commissioned for an artist residency at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios in Spoleto, Italy, the Sacro Bosco tape explores various themes from the region’s holy mountain of Monteluco (Latin: lucus - a wood sacred to Jupiter), and its myths of saintly protection.
Taking form as an installation in Piazza della Genga during a full moon, over 50 hand-drawn talismans invoking the spirits of the surrounding forest and beyond were nailed to the walls to create a 'universal sacred space'.
Whilst the use of protective paper talismans (ofuda/fulu) is typical to Daoist practice, Sacro Bosco attempts to observe and unify the local collective religious beliefs of Catholicism and the Pagan god Jupiter. Inspired by a tale about the patron saint of Spoleto, Pontianius, and how in 1703, on his feast day, earthquakes affected the entire region of Italy, save Spoleto.
This is a limited run of 50 cassette tapes - each wrapped in one of the original talismans - inked in black and cinnabar (as historically vermilion was regarded as the colour of blood, thus the colour of life), depicting the emblems and living spirits of wild boars, snakes, and trees in the surrounding forest.
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Self Released, 2022
Label founder, artist & writer Flora Yin Wong’s upcoming releases will be a second album on Modern Love, and via INA GRM following a residency for the Parisian institute's 48-channel diffusion system. Her debut album 'Holy Palm' was released on Modern Love and has featured on labels like PAN, Archaic Vaults, and Danse Noire and is currently working on remixes for Nyege Nyege Tapes and Animistic Beliefs. She has performed live at Atonal Berlin, Unsound and Semibreve Festivals, New York’s ISSUE Project Room, MACRO Roma, MUTEK in Peru, Buenos Aires, and Montreal, Volksbühne Theatre, SOTO Kyoto, The V&A Museum, Somerset House, The Jazz Cafe, and Cafe OTO, to clubs like Berghain, Printworks, Razzmatazz, WWWB Tokyo, and guested on shows for Rinse FM, NTS, Know Wave, The Lot Radio, and Boiler Room, with a trimestrial residency on LYL Radio.
