August Residency: Ashleigh May Thompson & Omar Peracha. Fractured

About

The basement space of their Kennington gallery will be transformed in to an open studio for visitors to watch the artists at work and to observe the evolution of this collaborative project.

Fractured combines visual art with specialised sound. The sound is itself derived from the artworks, creating a multisensory experience to deepen the metaphysical perception of the work.

Thompson’s hand manipulated works are monochrome; black intaglio ink on tissue paper. Her ongoing series, Fractures, attempts to encourage the viewer to question the work’s materiality and methodologies, drawing on the micro and macro, such as representations of infinite space, cross sections of bone, natural surfaces and optical processes. Peracha then uses digital scans of Thompson’s work as a raw material, treated as sonograms that are reverse-engineered into sound using two different algorithms; one which outputs fine-tuned noise bands, and another which resynthesises the sound additively.

The new technologies used by Peracha mean there is much trial and error, and the two different algorithms can produce fairly diverging results, bringing out contrasting qualities of the original artworks. The ongoing production of audio to which Thompson responds further, means the creation of an infinite evolving, and visual, soundscape.

This residency is part of a series of lead-up events related to Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2017, to engage a wider audience in the work and processes of original Printmakers.