SONIC.LAND shares new artwork by Rachel Shearer, Clinton Watkins, Edwina Stevens and Reuben Derrick, four artists from Aotearoa – New Zealand who work with environmental sound.
This is a project which rejects staid models for environmental listening and recording in favour of pluralistic, subjective encounters. Attendance, spontaneity, reflection and deep engagement with the environment are presented and celebrated as ends in themselves, as well as modalities for developing meaning and understanding in relation to the world around us.
Through a presentation of sonic artworks and a series of long-from interviews between the artists and curator, sonic.land explores the individual strategies and thought processes of leading NZ sound artists as they relate to environmental recording and associated practices in Aotearoa – New Zealand.
This project was conceived in 2019 and was intended to feature as part of the 2020 exhibition programme at BLINDSIDE Gallery, Naarm – Melbourne. It has been developed as an online project with support from the Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makaurau – Auckland, whose International Presentations programme is generously support by Creative New Zealand.
Blindside received 290 exhibition applications to exhibit in 2020 across both gallery spaces. Of these, 20 were selected and programmed including this group show.
The sonic.land website may be found here @ sonic.land
’Tī Kōuka in a turnip field’ @ sonic.land can be found here : Tī Kōuka in a turnip field (work)
Interview prior to work and websites completion can be found here : ES & SL Interview