i spent the summer of 1984 enmeshed in perhaps my most intense sound sculpting project, the construction of the 50 Gates
it began as a set to perform as a duet with Tim Wright, but by the time it had been finished, that idea had passed on
to honor that, i disassembled and re-transformed the elements: PVC tubing in all sorts of colors and sizes, capped with heads of animal skin
this reversed the conventional paradigm of modern western drums, organic shell (wood) and inorganic head (plastic)
much of the tubing was derelict sewage line, providing an edge of ‘animal magnetism’, as Tim would say, to its’ dynamics
on 1 November, the Night of the Dead, i presented what turned out to be the first and last 50 Gates performance
last, because i ended up (almost) never seeing it again
after the performance i left almost all of the elements stored at NL Centrum as i was almost immediately leaving for america for some months
and as Fate would have it — when i returned the NL Centrum had shut its’ doors — and the room where the elements had been stored was emptied out
however, on 1 May 1989, i was on the streets of Amsterdam for the Queen’s Day celebration and saw a young lady playing one of the elements
i introduced myself as the maker of the drum and she thanked me — saying that she had had a good time with it
so here’s a sort of rotational look from 4 vantage points