Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Earwitness Theatre

About

Chisenhale Gallery presents a major new co-commission by Beirut-based artist and ‘private ear’, Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Earwitness Theatre develops Abu Hamdan’s enquiry into the political effects of listening, presenting two installations that capture the psychological, bodily, spatial and sometimes hallucinatory world of the earwitness. Abu Hamdan’s exhibition is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery in partnership with: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; and it will be represented at the partner venues throughout 2019.

Working with sound, installation, performance, text, video and graphic works, Abu Hamdan’s work examines the contemporary politics of listening. Often building on audio analysis that Abu Hamdan has made for legal investigations and advocacy for humanitarian organisations, his work is acutely attentive to sound. Proposing new strategies for listening, Abu Hamdan’s work questions the ways in which rights are being heard and the way voices can become politically audible.