Local Artist Jon Tarry’s work Deep Six is part of sonic tour of popular and exclusive WA surfing spots. Interested in the cross-section between sound, video and sculpture, Tarry has turned to investigations of what he has termed ‘spatial power’ in public spaces. Experiences of global encounters—like airports, public squares and the like—are increasingly dominating his practice, but this has also fine-tuned his focus on the local.

Recording sounds at three surfing spots known by the locals and surfing aficionados, Tarry has attempted to bring a semblance of that experience to an audience in a dry, safe building. The locations he is working with are Deep Six, located at Cottesloe, Huzzas, located close to Gracetown in Margaret River, and Mettams Pool at Trigg. Creating computer coding to map an area, as with Mettams Pool for instance, Tarry uses these ‘drawings’ together with the on-site recordings, and digitally and sonically reconstructs the location. He takes us into the surfers’ experience of the spots, but asks: how far from nature are we when we are in nature, and how much in it are we when we are seemingly away from it?

The freedom surfers experience and the deep dedication to the ocean and its rules, can both be liberating and dangerous: often the first is possible because of the second. The soundscape that accompanies the surfing experience is captured and recreated by Tarry. While not a uniquely Western Australian experience, the work references a subject very close to most WA locals.