Sriwhana Spong’s The Painter-tailor | Live performance 14 Aug

Interdisciplinary artist Frances Libeau (they/she; fka Claire Duncan) works at the intersection of sonic composition, text and performance with an interest in queer remediations of narrative and technologies. Their composition, sound design, writing and performance works have been commissioned by artists and organisations across fields of music, fine art, film, theatre and dance. 

Libeau wrote the musical scores and devised sonic performance elements of Sriwhana Spong’s works castle-crystal (2019/2020; Edinburgh Arts Festival, Auckland Art Gallery) and A hook but no fish (2017/2018; Pump House Gallery London/Govett-Brewster Art Gallery). 

Frances Libeau presents an exploration of ombak/cyclical undulation in response to The Painter-tailor 2019-2021. With reference to Spong’s interest in embodied and linguistic mysticism as a way of reclaiming lost territories (of land, language and the body), Libeau utilises extensions of the body’s “breath” in conversation with Spong’s personal orchestra.

Made over the last few years, these instruments were inspired by the Indonesian gamelan: a unique orchestra whose pitch traditionally differed from village to village in Bali. Spong is compelled by the notion of a place and its community being represented by its own specifically tuned orchestra. Each of her instruments is named after a friend or collaborator, and will be activated across the period of the exhibition.

Image credit:

Image courtesy of Joseph Griffen.