He is a production manager at London’s first radio art station, an electronic musician and instrument maker and she is a broadcaster who hosts a regular radio show in the UK on Middle Eastern culture - but importantly, they are both sound artists who travel to Dubai at the end of this month to begin an 11-month New Media Artist Residency at Tashkeel studio hub.
Chris Weaver and Fari Bradley are the first participants of the residency, which is part of the wider Guest Artist Programme, an initiative aimed at providing artists with time to develop their practice in an environment that encourages the exchange of ideas through practice and experimentation.
During their 11 months, the artists plan to create two main installations – one on architectural acoustics that explores how sound exists in a space and another community piece that will function as a open studio. In November, the artists will also take part in the 20th International Symposium for Electronic Art (ISEA2014).
Bradley and Weaver also worked on the pop-up radio concept at Art Dubai and are not strangers to the city. However, they describe the opportunity as “really exciting” and intend to make the most of every day.
“It is an amazing opportunity,” says Bradly. “At home we work on project-to-project basis but this is a great chance just to focus on our art. Time is the most precious commodity and so this is a massive gift. It is a lot more generous than anything we would be offered in the UK.”
Sound art is still a relatively undiscovered medium both here and abroad and this residency will give the artists a chance to explore their own practice whilst also working with the community to expand general perceptions about sonic art practices.
“Tashkeel currently runs up to three guest artist residencies a year. Encouraging the exchange of ideas between international and local practitioners, the non-prescriptive and process-based nature of the residencies allows visiting artists to develop projects in response to their new context, or to conduct research benefiting from our resources. We are really excited about having Fari and Chris here at Tashkeel, the range of their practice, from sculptural to improvisation and performance, hand-made objects to large scale installations will bring new energy to the studios and we hope, exciting dialogues within Dubai’s art community. We also believe they will challenge and fully engage with Dubai’s varied audience,” said Anabelle de Gersigny, Tashkeel’s Strategy and Partnership Development Manager.
