John Wynne
is a sound artist whose practice includes installations and award-winning radio pieces which hover on the boundary between documentation and abstraction, large scale ‘architectural sound drawings’, and multi-channel sculptural installations. His work with endangered languages includes a project with click languages in the Kalahari and another with one of Canada’s indigenous languages, Gitxsanimaax. His work on the Transplant project with photographer Tim Wainwright led to a book, an installation and a half-hour commission for BBC Radio.  His vast 2009 installation for 300 speakers, player piano and vacuum cleaner is the first piece of sound art in the Saatchi collection. He teaches at the University of the Arts London and has a PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Anspayaxw (excerpt/remix of 12-channel installation)
MP3

Anspayaxw (Kispiox) is the Native reserve in northern British Columbia where I worked with linguist Tyler Peterson and visual artist Denise Hawrysio to record speakers of Gitxsanimaax, one of many endangered languages in this area of remarkable linguistic diversity.  This clip features the voice of K’uliltxw’m Saax (aka Bob Wilson), a fluent Gitxsan speaker described by his sister Louise, who invited us to record him, as ‘my encyclopedia’. The word Anspayaxw ends with a voiceless fricative, a breathy sound characteristic of the language.