Using a spectrum of approaches to production, the exhibiting artists shared an interest in mixing visual and sonic elements within their work. Some installations embraced the cacophony of contemporary culture’s accelerated pace, whilst others lamented it, wistfully dreaming of a time and place reserved for quieter contemplation.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan‘s video work The All-Hearing touched 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 created immersive multi-sensory environments through the refraction of digital video beams and carefully glitched sound.
Paul Elliman‘s work responded to mimetic correspondences between human language and the urban environment. His installation Beyond Police Call was 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 converted 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 used 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 created a unique generative soundscape from an archive of Hollywood blockbuster sound clips.
With its open atrium and interlocking spaces, The Tetley created a unique and challenging acoustic architecture to present sound-led work. Demonstrating the tension created by our sonic surroundings in everyday life this show offered audiences an opportunity to tune in, zone out or reset.
No quiet place was part of Yorkshire Festival 2016, the UK’s newest international festival, which ran from 16 June – 3 July, and promised world premieres and UK exclusives with spectacular outdoor performances as well as music, theatre, arts and dance, from theatres to clubs across the region.