What will become of all that humans have created when we’re no longer on the planet to preserve it? This project by artist Evan Holm is both a nod to the grief that the mere thought of losing so much art, architecture, music and other culturally significant creations can incite, and hope for a new beginning. ‘Submerged Turntables’ play music perfectly even when placed underwater, spinning in a black pool.
Watching the record swirl in the water is an eerie sight, powerfully evoking visuals of the monster floods we’ve watched wipe out human settlements in epic disaster movies as well as in real life. The knob to control the record player is built into a branch that hangs over the pool. The video below shows the process of setting up the installation.
“There will be a time when all tracings of human culture will dissolve back into the soil under the slow crush of the unfolding universe,” says Holm. “The pool, black and depthless, represents loss, represents mystery and represents the collective subconscious of the human race. By placing these records underneath the dark and obscure surface of the pool, I am enacting a small moment of remorse towards this loss.”
“In the end however this is an optimistic sculpture, for just after that moment of submergence; tone, melody and ultimately song is pulled back out of the pool, past the veil of the subconscious, out from under the crush of time, and back into a living and breathing realm. When I pe
