Continuing her work as artist in residence at the Ear Institute, UCL London, Aura will develop a new intimate, immersive sound sculpture that will create a physical and psychoacoustic sonic experience whereby visitors will be encouraged to place their head inside the sculpture itself. Like a giant hearing trumpet or an automaton ear, the horn appears to tune into the vast library of past sounds that is the air. The multi-channel soundtrack outputs in a spiral sequence, thus echoing the rotating technology of wax cylinder sound recordings. Similarly, the narrative voicover explores the idea of memory being like a wax cylinder, a 'mystic writing-pad' of sorts, a blank slate onto which memories leave their trace and personal history is recorded. For the musical composition Aura has revisited and re-composed some of the original recordings made as a result of her Soundtrap III commission for Beaconsfield in Vauxhall, Glissolalia. This new composition includes excerpts of the psychoacoustic illusion of a Shepard tone, the theremin played by Lydia Kavina and voices by the barbershop quartet Hunky Dory (Jackie Driscoll, Lolly Thomas, Ceejai Seaman, and Barbara Thompson). Spiral Sound Coil explores the ever-shifting site of sound, and offers a powerfully disorienting acoustic experience.

Commissioned by Jerwood Space

Aura would like to thank Bradford Backus and Thorsten Marquardt at the Ear Institute; Beaconsfield Gallery and in particular David Crawforth; Lydia Kavina; Jackie Driscoll, Lolly Thomas, Ceejai Seaman, and Barbara Thompson; Dave Hunt for his sound advice; and Sarah Williams.

Aura Satz, Spiral Sound Coil - in the studio, 2010. Photo: Paul Winch-Furness

Installed at the Jerwood Space. Photo: Paul Winch-Furness

Installed at the Jerwood Space. Photo: Paul Winch-Furness

2 April - 29 May 2011

'Fraternise - the Salon', group show at Beaconsfield, London

Franko B, David Birkin, Ansuman Biswas, John Burgess, Matthew Burrows, Tony Carter, Tamsyn Challenger, Jules Clarke, Ben Cockett, Susan Collis, Michael Corkrey, Keith Coventry, A. David Crawforth, Mikey Cuddihy, Shane Cullen, Michael Curran, Judith Dean, Mark Dean, Nicolas Deshayes, Adam Dix, Richard Elliott, Robert Ellis, Tracey Emin, Laura Emsley, Alexa de Ferranti, Peter Fillingham, Edwina fitzPatrick, Rebecca Fortnum, Eloise Fornieles, Stephen Fowler, Paul Fryer, Rachel Garfield, Mary George, Mathew Gibson, Bruce Gilbert, Colin Glen, Lucy Gunning, Matt Hale, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Denise Hawrysio, Damien Hirst, Rachel Howard, Marc Hulson, Sarah Jones, Simon Lawson, Peter Liversidge, Sarah Lucas and Olivier Garbay, Maria Marshall, Ross McNicol, David Mollin, Charlotte Moth, Hayley Newman, Paul Noble, Monika Oechsler, Tom Ormond, Lily Paine, Tom Paine, Tamsin Pender, Susan Pui San Lok, Aura Satz, Boo Saville, Michael Shaw, Naomi Siderfin, Bob and Roberta Smith, Julian Stallabrass, Dafna Talmor, John Timberlake, Caroline Todd, Roman Vasseur, Jessica Voorsanger, Mark Wallinger, Joseph Walsh, Roxy Walsh, Amelia Whitelaw, Keith Wilson, Erika Winstone.

Fraternise - the Salon gathers a cohort of artists in a curated, fundraising exhibition, to support the future existence of Beaconsfield - the pioneering, non-profit organisation that has provided a laboratory and presentation space for artists since 1995.

Beaconsfield is an artist-led entity that specialises in encouraging artists to pursue projects of ambition and to experiment without commercial pressure. The Salon brings together collaborators, patrons and proteges who have worked with Beaconsfield or who support its role in the artists' community.

The Salon offers a rare opportunity to view a diverse range of contemporary works (many artists exhibiting together for the first time) and to start or expand a collection. Sales will benefit both participating artists and Beaconsfield.

Fraternise - the Salon is co-curated by the charity's artist-trustees, Rachel Howard, Judith Dean and artist-directors A. David Crawforth and Naomi Siderfin.

Beaconsfield
22 Newport Street, London SE11 6AY
info@beaconsfield.ltd.uk
+44 (0)20 7582 6465
www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk

18-29 January 2012

Samsung Art+ Prize, group show at BFI Southbank, London

Samsung Electronics are delighted to present the UK’s first ever prize for new media art. A shortlist of 10 emerging and established contemporary artists has been selected by a panel of curators from leading arts organisations for a two-week exhibition at the BFI Southbank. Opening on 18 January 2012, the exhibition will include new work as well as pieces that have never been shown before in the UK.

The Samsung Art+ Prize aims to highlight artists who reveal the ways technologies can touch our lives. All of the selected artists must be a citizen of, educated in or currently residing in the UK and they have been nominated for work they have created in the past three years. The shortlisted artists selected are: Neil Cummings, Doug Fishbone, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Torsten Lauschmann, Lucky PDF, Aura Satz, Hiraki Sawa, Semiconductor, Erika Tan and Thomsonand Craighead.

The resulting shortlist showcases the diverse range of practice offered by new media, and includes artists working in screen friendly idioms as well as those exploring diverse strategies of communication such as performance, sculpture and music.

The 10 nominated artists have been selected for their ability to expand and challenge our understanding of the role of new media. In the era of smart media the prize will celebrate the unique ways in which artists respond to the changing world and embrace the possibilities offered by different media opportunities; not only as platforms of production and research but also as new modes of communication beyond the traditional gallery.

The judges including Jan Dalley, Arts Editor at the Financial Times; Dr. Peter Weibel, Chairman and CEO of the ZKM Centre for Art and Media; Stuart Comer, Curator of Film, Tate Modern; Jiyoon Lee, Director of SUUM; and New York based media artist, Sooja Kim.

14 April - 21 June 2012

Psychosis part II, “I is someone else” group show at Färgfabriken - Centre for Contemporary Art and Architecture, Stockholm

Psychosis is a long-term project. Through exhibitions, publications, film screenings and seminars we illuminate various aspects of the subject. The aim is to use art in order to deepen our understanding of the human psyche and our social relationships.

With I is Someone Else we want to produce an exhibition that deals less with artistic authenticity or the diagnosis of psychosis and more with the symptoms of the illness as the point of departure for describing transformations of the self. Even a healthy person is not constituted by a clearly delineated self; we harbour a whole set of potential selves. This is clearly captured in common expressions: I could be “beside myself” with worry, for example, or “not really myself today”, or I could “lose myself in my thoughts”.

A similar view of the possibility of multiple identities is expressed in the pamphlet of directions for use that accompany a particular anti-depression medication. Taking the medication, it warns, may cause the sense of “being apart from oneself and from reality”. Where, then, does the person feel like he or she is? If you’re “not yourself”, then who are you? And hearing voices in your head could be a symptom of mental illness, but under certain circumstances it’s considered entirely normal – if you heart them in the wakening state between dream and consciousness, for example. Further, those who claim to hear the voice of God are seldom declared unfit for that reason alone. The boundary between what is normal and what is abnormal is obviously blurry, malleable, and negotiable.

We imagine that works of art may be understood as symptoms, as “psychotic” without being expressions of illness. They can construct temporary wholes from splintered selves, and they can just as easily dissolve the illusion of a solid identity. Or they can simply pose unanswered questions about the nature of the self. And the exhibition’s artworks are not psychotic, because they communicate with the viewer and create the kind of dialogue that is impossible for someone suffering from psychosis.

Participating artists: Beata Berggren, Maja Bajevic, Andreas Gedin, Matti Kallioinen,Renja Leino, Håkan Rehnberg, Aura Satz

Curators: Elsa Ekesiöö Thambert, Andreas Gedin, Joachim Granit, Fia Palmgren, Robert Stasinski