audible silence : Jez riley French [PAST]

Sound exhibition:

14 April 2023 Friday 5-8pm

15 & 16 April Saturday & Sunday 2:30-6:30pm

21 April Friday 5-8pm

22 April Saturday 2:30-4:30pm

23 April Sunday 4:30-6:30pm

Running time: 30 minutes. Free Entry

Talks:

Session 1 – 22 April Saturday 5-7pm (Full)

Session 2 – 23 April Sunday 2-4pm (Full)

£8 | 10 places each session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for ticketing

Both sessions will be delivered in similar contents, ie they are not Part 1 and Part 2.


After having run four rounds of Open Calls DIVFUSE Sound Archive looking for works that are based on field recordings, Project DIVFUSE is pleased to present a sound exhibition by Jez riley French, an artist who builds microphones for capturing sound in different environments. Jez will also be giving two sessions of talks on recording devices and techniques involved based on his extensive experience.

Sound exhibition

soil horizons (2023)
spit soil beds

Traces of durational listening to the inner sounds of plants and to soil horizons; on-going research into transpiration, root systems, cavitation, vibrations in soil systems, situated connections between ground dwelling species, public and private land borders.

Recorded with adapted JrF contact microphones and hydrophones.

glacial objects | silica (2023)
parts of the steady state*

Part of a series of works; ìsland | fjorar, based on material collected in Iceland over several years, mapping shifts in specific environments through an on-going fascination with micro-listening using extended techniques and hand-crafted devices; a small
outcrop of rock, lava and moss revealed as a glacier thaws, the minerals dissolving, releasing air trapped for hundreds of thousands of years. Events in the ionosphere, radio antenna cables and remote civic architecture.

Recorded JrF contact microphones, hydrophones, and other devices.
*subtitle from a series of text pieces by Pheobe riley Law


Talks

audible silence
traces outside of our attention

Detailing aspects of his work with extended listening techniques, for this talk Jez will discuss the contact microphones, hydrophones, electromagnetic coils and geophones he designs and builds, and how they connect to his work with durational and micro listening as personal and creative practices.


Focusing extensively on sound as both material and subject JrF’s work involves installation, intuitive composition, scores, film and photography. Alongside performances and exhibitions Jez lectures and runs workshops in various countries on field recording / located sound as an art form. He also works as a curator of events, a record label, sound installations and an arts zine ‘verdure engraved’. His range of specialist microphones, along with the extended techniques he has developed, or helped popularise, are now widely used across sound culture and recognised as having has a significant influence on the arts.

Aspects of his work have been exhibited or performed in events and installations alongside that of Yoko Ono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sarah Lucas, Alvin Lucier etc., at galleries including Tate Modern (UK), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Japan), Museo Reina Sofia (Spain), and The Wired Lab (Australia).

Currently, Jez is working on several major projects including one focused on the design & detail of spaces between buildings in Japan and further works exploring structures resonated by compositions and their locales. He is also working with his daughter, the artist Pheobe riley Law, on a series of performative collaborations.

Areas of work / research micro-listening, durational listening, architectural, plant, soil horizon, aquatic and infrasound recording as key elements of contemporary located sound practices. Working with photographic scores & scores for listening, discussing the gendering of sound cultures and histories, and perception of environments.

jezrileyfrench.co.uk

Image from the artist | Portrait by Pheobe riley Law