Murmurs Sway the Under-story by Carmen Reid

Murmurs Sway the Under-story is a silent installation about listening. It interprets acts of communication through a series of sculptural models, centring the hidden oscillations that reside between speakers and listeners and the resonant thrums of what can never be said that lie beneath the surface of spoken words. The work is a rumination on what it means to listen and commune intimately with other humans, lifeforms and the built and natural environments. It considers the complex conditions that help or hinder dialogue; silence, attention, butting-in or distraction, together with daily tensions that divert or call us to attention; the rush of noise, busyness and interruption, or the desire to slow down enough to listen deeply to the wisdom of the earth, Indigenous knowledge and our own bodies. It approaches the space of transmission between speaker and hearer as a charged zone of possibility where a collaborative exchange of thought and attention occurs, and where how we listen greatly shape the stories we are told and tell ourselves.

This is the first in an ongoing series of installations that explore contradictory states alongside formal notions of rhythm as a state of embodied encounter. Experientially the arrangement of models aims to set up a trajectory of encounter that engages the body and senses with materially considered forms placed at different levels of orientation; high, low, vertical, horizontal, encouraging a pace of observation that invites close attention to micro expressions within a macro world.

Some models are constructed in response to architectural elements of the gallery; doorways, corners, windows. Collectively they comprise fragments of architecture, found objects, sculpture, references to human and creaturely anatomy, landscape and incorporate motifs that symbolise communication such as ears and speech bubbles. Formally they reference a broad history of model-making, such as theatrical, architectural and anatomical models.

ARTIST IN CONVERSATION: THURSDAY 15 JUNE from 4-6PM
Come along as we join Carmen Reid for an informal floor talk that invites dialogue and incorporates a selection of readings that punctuate the theme of listening and communication. All are welcome.