'A Penny Beautiful for Catherine Eddowes' is a work for 2-channel playback, commissioned by Nick Luscombe (BBC Radio 3 Late Junction/Musicity Global).
Composed as a response to both the architecture and history of Mitre Square (Aldgate), London – synonymous with Jack the Ripper and 19th century 'Penny Dreadful' literature – the work shifts focus away from the patriarchal obsessions and 'glorifications' of tour guide narratives and, more importantly and respectfully onto Catherine Eddowes, a victim of the Whitechapel Murders. The work is conceived for her as an electroacoustic 'garden of remembrance and healing'.
The work’s materials use analogue communication in the form of birdsong, which forms a backdrop to transient, momentary ‘appearances’ by way of signals from the ‘digital world’.
It was premièred at the Erased Tapes Sound Gallery, London on 10th July 2018, and later on-site at Mitre Square, Aldgate as part of 'Musicity x Sculpture in the City on 21st July.
