Category: _

Reading/Listening:

I haven’t read or listened anything particularly…this is incredibly disappointing part of my lockdown life :) 

Watching:

I watched Chibi Maruko-chan, the Japanese animation mostly. 

Doing:

I did lots of fixing. Darning socks, coats and trousers, painting walls, repairing chairs etc.  Also I picked flower from my daily walk to bring back some nature to my flat as i don’t have a garden, and then i felt sorry to them so i pressed them in books, and i made some collage with them. Then I did some recordings for O YAMA O and some other recordings for new works, and I made a sculpture called ‘seven days bird songs’ from 14-20 May online. Very recently I did a conversation with David Toop over emails on sculpture that we would like to publish sometime somehow.  

---

Rie Nakajima is a Japanese artist working with installations and performances that produce sound. Her works are most often composed in direct response to unique architectural spaces using a combination of kinetic devices and found objects. Fusing sculpture and sound, her artistic practice is open to chance and the influence of others, raising important questions about the definition of art. She has exhibited and performed worldwide. Her first major solo exhibition was held at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also collaborated with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Tate Modern (London), Serralves Museum (Porto), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Hara Museum (Tokyo), The Hepworthwakefield (Wakefield), Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin) and Cafe OTO (London). Her frequent collaborators includes David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, Pierre Berthet, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop, Akira Sakata among others. In 2014 she received Art Foundation Award in the category of Experimental Music.

Rie Nakajima

Reading:

John Boyd – The Pollinators of Eden

James Benning’s Environments: Politics, Ecology, Duration’, Edited by Nikolaj Lübecker and Daniele Rugo

Madelaine Francis Heleine – Freshwater Aquariums for Dummies

Listening to:

My back yard in this time of increased bird and bat activity between 8-10pm most evenings after the kids are worn out.

Stock, Hausen & Walkman – Buffed Up

Lee Patterson – Egg Fry #2

Joe Colley – HIVE

Watching:

Kelly Reichhardt – Night Moves

Jason Bateman – Ozark (series 1-3) 

Celine Sciamma – Water Lilies

Working on:

To be honest I haven’t been working on anything during this Lock-down due to two children that are out of school and nursery and my Partner is working from home. I had initial thoughts about what I could achieve over the the next couple months and have managed to not really do any. I am not a major procrastinator, but by the time the children are in bed, I’m equally worn out managing to get a film in or two.

For many years I wanted to dip my foot in the modular synth game to try understand it a bit better, but not had the money to start a set-up that could at least give me some results under £200. I am not interested in going down this route as a practice, However electronic synthesis does have a great influence in my Installations and Performances (within physical processes and image making).

 I came across miniMO just before the New Year that is a little square module that can be pre-programmed by an Arduino or done so by miniMO. It is in effect a digital system that can be plugged in many ways between countless other modules, standalone or in its own rack system. I’ve started making my own 6 piece rack set that I will try connecting to mildly electric objects such as coils, dying batteries etc… I like how it is extremely affordable in comparison to a Moog on Steroids.And of course, I’m writing up my thesis, its more of a game of Tortoise and the Hare right now.

---

Ben Gwilliam an artist whose work spans sound, film, installation & performance. His work explores how the mechanics of sound media reflect & distort human perception, often manipulating the space(s) & moment of experience. His fascination drives a curiosity that forms as durational performances and installations, film & video works and writing. He has exhibited & performed Internationally in spaces such as La casa Encendida Madrid, The Cornerhouse Manchester, Artists Unlimited Bielefeld, Modern Art Oxford, & FACT Liverpool. His performance and composed works have been commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices Festival (UK 2010), Rumilingen new music (CH 2010), University of Salford (UK 2008) & IOU Theatre (UK 2003).

Ben Gwilliam

Reading:

Julia Blackburn – Time Song: Searching for Doggerland

Marguerite Duras – Practicalities

Thomas Bernhard – Extinction

Listening to:

Beatrice Dillon – Workaround

Amplify2020’s bandcamp releases

Watching:

Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire

John Smith – The Black Tower

Working on:

I have just finished a set of sound pieces, Fountains, which will be released on the cassette label Eminent Observer in the next few weeks. And I’m back in my studio, working on drawings in relation to the sounds and the landscapes they were recorded in.

I’ve also been researching and recording my radio show, Sonic Envelopes, that goes out on RTM.FM on the last Wednesday of each month. In the next episode I interview the artist Gabriella Hirst about her sound piece ‘Siren Song/The Winner Takes it All’ and we talk about Greek myths, Eurovision and the practicality of using sea sponges as a windshield.

---

Hannah Dargavel-Leafe is an artist and researcher based in London. Her practice considers landscape and sound within the expanded field of sculpture.

Hannah Dargavel-Leafe

insta @hannah.dl