UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Feb 25th - Apr 7th
Under Construction is a new sound installation by Australian sound artist and composer Kate Carr. Known for her musical compositions and live performances, this is her first gallery presentation in the UK.
Carr’s art is grounded within the practice of field recording, the sonic exploration of the sometimes hidden sounds of an environment.
Using microphones Carr finds sounds within a body of water, the internal vibrations of a building, or the rumbling noises deep within the earth.
Carr uses field recordings within thoughtful, haunting ambient compositions, that blur the boundaries between instruments and ‘found’ sounds.
In her focus on walking and listening Carr acts in a way that is similar to the wandering Flâneur (‘stroller’), a French 19th century literary figure, or the modern figure of the Psychogeographer whose urban wandering is led by the psychological or emotional prompts of an environment, rather than that of a predetermined route.
Over 10 months Carr has explored the physical and sonic environment of Thamesmead. The collected sounds from these strolls and wanderings have been made by Carr into a changing composition.
Intended to be experienced spatially by walking around the gallery, the composition is performed through a series of experimental sculptures.
These minimal sculptural forms extend from the floor to the ceiling. Their fetishistic qualities are defined by taught cables and wires containing suspended car speakers, interlinked key rings, reels, and analog tape.
Drone from reel to reel tape machines, recorded sounds of water, voices, police sirens, horses, water and air, overlap with sounds sourced from buildings, bridges, and roads.
These sounds are shuffled to produce a shifting and expansive composition that mixes and bleeds with the frequent live sounds that happen in real time outside the gallery, blurring the distinction of where the composition might be considered to begin and end.
A ‘place’can be defined by physical characteristics such as buildings, roads or lakes. It is also a dynamic collage of social, cultural and environmental changes such as the movement of people, different spoken languages, animals, traffic, or the weather.
Under Construction reflects a subjective experience of a ‘place’ in change. It could be thought of as a sonic portrait of Thamesmead or as a compositional ode to its character, or as a meditation on the act of listening and its intrinsic attributes of being and feeling, in a ‘place’.
Kate Carr has exhibited and performed Internationally. Her audio work has been broadcasted and presented on Radio 6, Late Junction and she has performed lives at International platforms such as MazerMuski Festival – Berlin, Sonorities - Belfast, Café OTO and the Horse Hospital - London and Norðanvindur sound art festival, Iceland. Her work has been shown at galleries including the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Australia, the Kochi Muzaris Biennale – India, and Transition- Mken, Sweden.Her work has been released on labels including Rivertones (UK), Helen Scarsdale (USA), Galaverna (Italy), and Soft (France). Kate Carr runs and owns the record label – Flaming Pines (UK). Her latest Album The Thing Itself And Not The Myth was released in 2018.