Singing Art Deco Oyster Saucière
Marseille, 1930s, Berlin, 2026
This elegant Art Deco oyster saucière conceals a small, removable sound work within. Nestled within is an original musical composition, a sung version of Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter that transforms the satirical poeminto a quiet elegy—its verses slowed, layered, and set adrift in a low, tidal rhythm. The song loops continuously, audible only at close range, as though the object itself were murmuring.
Produced in France in the 1930s by the atelier of Maurice Gouaillé, the saucière was designed to accompany oysters served on the half shell, holding butter or vinaigrette. It belongs to a long tradition in which oysters signaled refinement and excess—from the royal beds of Louis XIV to the cultivated abundance encouraged under Napoleon III.
Here, that history is gently unsettled. The vessel that once served the oyster now gives it voice.
*Audio excerpt available upon request.
12 cm (L) × 7.5 cm (H) × 7.5 cm (W)
About the Artists:
Cavana Lee Hazelton, vocals and composition
Berlin, Germany
Cavana is an artist and history educator active in a range of media. She spent her childhood touring across Europe and North America with her avant-garde jazz musician parents. Through singing, songwriting, performance, and voiceover, she uses storytelling to nourish relationships across cultures and between humans and the natural world.
Brian Ledwidge Flynn, arrangement, sound design, and production
Dortmund, Germany
Brian is an Irish-born composer, guitarist, and producer who explores how sound shapes our experience of time. A classically trained musician, he works across genres—from chamber instrumentation to analog-tape processes—to explore texture, material presence, and chance.
Michelle Standley, sound engineering and conception
Berlin, Germany / Brooklyn, New York
Michelle is a writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist whose work engages sound, text, visual, and material culture. Drawing on a background in history, she explores how objects carry narrative, memory, and voice.
Singing Art Deco Oyster Saucière
Marseille, 1930s, Berlin, 2026
This elegant Art Deco oyster saucière conceals a small, removable sound work within. Nestled within is an original musical composition, a sung version of Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter that transforms the satirical poeminto a quiet elegy—its verses slowed, layered, and set adrift in a low, tidal rhythm. The song loops continuously, audible only at close range, as though the object itself were murmuring.
Produced in France in the 1930s by the atelier of Maurice Gouaillé, the saucière was designed to accompany oysters served on the half shell, holding butter or vinaigrette. It belongs to a long tradition in which oysters signaled refinement and excess—from the royal beds of Louis XIV to the cultivated abundance encouraged under Napoleon III.
Here, that history is gently unsettled. The vessel that once served the oyster now gives it voice.
*Audio excerpt available upon request.
12 cm (L) × 7.5 cm (H) × 7.5 cm (W)
About the Artists:
Cavana Lee Hazelton, vocals and composition
Berlin, Germany
Cavana is an artist and history educator active in a range of media. She spent her childhood touring across Europe and North America with her avant-garde jazz musician parents. Through singing, songwriting, performance, and voiceover, she uses storytelling to nourish relationships across cultures and between humans and the natural world.
Brian Ledwidge Flynn, arrangement, sound design, and production
Dortmund, Germany
Brian is an Irish-born composer, guitarist, and producer who explores how sound shapes our experience of time. A classically trained musician, he works across genres—from chamber instrumentation to analog-tape processes—to explore texture, material presence, and chance.
Michelle Standley, sound engineering and conception
Berlin, Germany / Brooklyn, New York
Michelle is a writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist whose work engages sound, text, visual, and material culture. Drawing on a background in history, she explores how objects carry narrative, memory, and voice.
