Tuesday 28 April 2009


Marking the end of the Whitechapel Gallery’s year-long series of artists’ commissions, The Street, Fleet: Ice Cream Orchestra performed a specially created six part composition written for the ice cream van horn outside the Street Headquarters on Toynbee Street in London's East End. Six vans from Honours Ice Cream played their solo sections in twinkling harmony.


The unique tinny sound which heralds the arrival of sticky dairy products, recognised by children across the land comes from the Grampian horn bolted to the van’s axel and pointed towards the road to disperse the sound. Pawsey, an art technician from Folkestone, composed and recorded the piece on a twelve-note, toy xylophone from the 1960s called a ‘Pixiphone’, and says his composition was influenced by traditional folk music.


With free Cornish ice cream dished out before and after the performance, there were creamy smiles of glee on the faces of children and nostalgic grown ups.

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