Installing ‘In The Name Of’.
Sound art installation, 7 channels, 7 voice sculptures, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, UK.
The sound art installation comprises 7 ovoid, speaker-powered voice sculptures that serve as civic vessels for women's narratives. Together, they may evoke a cluster of red water lilies, a plant that symbolises resilience and the ability to overcome adversity. Each voice sculpture holds a miniature speaker. The 7-channel audio system randomly distributes the voices, creating an ever-evolving soundscape. The vocal polyphony interweaves the artist’s chant with fragmented accounts from US women whose health has been affected by the abortion ban, which has forced them to carry non-viable pregnancies to term. These anonymised voices have been re-enacted from textual and audiovisual documentary sources, using the Hume AI voice interface: “They forced me. In my womb. Why. God. Until my body expels it.”
While the starting point was the US abortion ban, the piece expands beyond that, leaving room to challenge manifold power structures. The sound art installation creates space for each experiencer to bring their own narratives and perspectives into the interstice, the aural gaps of the work. It serves as a vessel for inner narratives and voices, interrogating the human condition.
Photographer: Olivia Louvel
Photographer: Stephanie Blundelle