In the summer of 2024/2025, the air seemed to solidify with waves and walls of sound and vibrating pulses and drones of piercing volume. It was part of a worldwide phenomenon, the rare co-emergence of multiple species of Cicada. Summer Mantra was created from and to honour that extraordinary natural event.

One of the species, ‘Double Drummers’ for no known reason to us, like to fly out to sea, and the remains of hundreds of these ‘short-lived singers’ graced the shoreline on the East Coast of NSW. The zig-zag patterning on their wings suggested their sonic vibration was made visible.

A mantra expresses the subtle patterns of reality through sound. This intense acoustic event transformed the landscape into an immersive auditory field which was at times hypnotic and assumed a meditative quality – like a mantra. Summer Mantra‘s harmonious form of assembled Cicada wings expresses a stillness held within that intense sound vibration. A stillness where the sacred may be felt.