Artist talk: Gail Priest
Published
GAIL PRIEST is a Sydney-based artist with a multi-faceted practice in which sound is the key material of communication and investigation. Her work comprises solo electro-acoustic performance and recordings, sound installations for gallery contexts, sound design for performance and video, as well as curation, critique and advocacy.
Her ongoing interest is in exploiting the liminal zone between figuration and abstraction, meaning-making and meaning breaking. In her gallery practice she seeks to create immersive listening environments that actively engage audiences, luring them into a heightened auditory realm, and challenging the visual-bias of the both the gallery and contemporary living.
In 2015-16 she has been awarded an Emerging & Experimental Arts Fellowship from the Australia Council to create her current body of work, Sounding the Future, exploring the audio realm in speculative fiction. The first iteration, an interactive sound, text and video installation, will be exhibited at Werkleitz, Halle, Germany as part of the Move.On festival in October 2015.
Gail also curates exhibitions and events such as her on going series Pretty Gritty and writes extensively about sound and music, including editing the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia (UNSW Press 2009.) She is also the instigator of the Audible Women project — an online directory for women who make some kind of art that can be heard.
Websites:
http://www.gailpriest.net
http://www.audiblewomen.com
Sound: https://soundcloud.com/gail-priest
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/102178919
Gail Priest has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
Photos by Amar Belmabrouk
