No Quiet Place

About

CURATED BY ZOË SAWYER

AKEELAH BERTRAM, CLARE CHARNLEY + PATRICIA AZEVEDO, PAUL ELLIMAN, LAWRENCE ABU HAMDAN, HANNE LIPPARD, ANNE WALSH + CHRIS KUBICK

The sound-led artworks and mixed media installations within No Quiet Place examine the environmental and incidental noise that proliferates the physical, sensorial and psychic spaces within our 21st century world.

Using a spectrum of approaches to production, exhibiting artists share an interest in mixing visual and sonic elements within their work. Some installations embrace the cacophony of contemporary culture’s accelerated pace, whilst others lament it, wistfully dreaming of a time and place reserved for quieter contemplation.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s video work The All-Hearing touches on his interest in the ‘politics of listening’. The video documents the delivery of religious sermons about sound pollution in Cairo set against footage of the city’s invasive and all-absorbing audio and visual noise. Leeds-based Akeelah Bertram creates immersive multi-sensory environments through the refraction of digital video beams and carefully glitched sound.

Paul Elliman’s work responds to mimetic correspondences between human language and the urban environment. His installation Beyond Police Call is part of an ongoing exploration of the contact and alert calls of emergency service vehicles.

Leeds-based Clare Charnley and Brazil-based Patricia Azevedo’s video work It’s stone hitting stone, was produced collaboratively during a residency in Portugal. The film creates a sonic guessing game in the mind’s eye, as a group of villagers are try to identify the sounds of their home.

Berlin-based Hanne Lippard, converts fragments of text collected from pop culture, the workplace and everyday interactions into performances and sound works. Using her voice as her medium, Lippard’s poetic readings are often delivered in a tone reminiscent of an internal monologue, or a children’s bedtime story. California-based Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick will use The Tetley’s Leeds Beckett Atrium gallery for the European debut of their collaboratively produced Full Metal Jackets I+II, a large-scale installation that creates a unique generative soundscape from an archive of Hollywood blockbuster sound clips.

With its open Atrium and interlocking spaces, The Tetley creates a unique and challenging acoustic architecture to present sound-led work. Demonstrating the tension created by our sonic surroundings in everyday life this show offers audiences an opportunity to tune in, zone out or reset.

No Quiet Place is part of Yorkshire Festival 2016, the UK’s newest international festival which runs from 16 June – 3 July, and promises world premieres and UK exclusives with spectacular outdoor performances as well as music, theatre, arts and dance, from theatres to clubs across the region.