Rhian Sheehan I
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Bio: Rhian Sheehan is an award winning New Zealand composer and recording artist. He has composed a variety of film and television projects, as well as the scores for seven fulldome planetarium shows.
When Doves Fly
It was an uncanny moment entering the building we were to present in. It felt like I was walking into the empty chaos and uncertainty of the abandoned Bradbury Building; the soft-brick walls, corroded windows and old floors ready to give way at any replicant moment. Luminous shapes and light shadows rebounded off vid screens and cracked mirrors, and fell in a pool at our nervous feet. So real was the feeling that we might be in Blade Runner that I imagined Roy Batty bursting through the plaster to scream out, I want more life, fucker.
Rhian and I were here to talk about our passionate interest in the film, although we had never met. On first seeing him, I realised how much we looked, moved, and spoke like one another. It felt like we could have been replicants born of the same exact genetic seed. Rhian swigged whiskey from a hip-flask, a large group gathered to hear us, and I began the event by pretending to be a Private Eye investigating Deckard’s humanity or humanness. I put him on trial and came up with a verdict – he wants more life, father.
When it was Rhian’s turn he spoke briefly but eloquently about his love of the film, its soundtrack and score, and the affective memories and emotions that rose in him whenever he watched it. Then he premiered this smouldering, light-filled track, written in homage to the film. We listened in awe and wonder.
The sounds of the score filled the building, crept into the spaces in-between, and caught a radical ride on the illuminations scattering themselves across the room. So real was the feeling that we were in Blade Runner that I caught sight of tears-in-rain, as a white dove escaped through the now broken window.
SR
This event was held at the Enjoy Art Gallery, Cuba Street, Wellington, on the 15th September 2010
