In 2017 I founded UMBRELLA Sound Art Collective with a group of artists at Sonic Arts Research Centre. We created a series of exhibitions and live performances through 2017-2020.
View the projects at the UMBRELLA website
Hear Yous / 22 September 2017 / Culture Night Belfast
UMBRELLA’s first public engagement took place at Culture Night Belfast in September 2017. The event, ‘HEAR YOUS’, presented new audio work by seven artists. These works were performed in a moving concert around the city’s Cathedral Quarter that amplified sounds using four handheld megaphones.
The programme featured a variety of approaches to audio amplification in public spaces. Elen Flügge’s promenade performance through ‘The Belfast Entries’ explored the acoustics of these historical alleyways with the sounds of harmonic drones. Aidan Deery conjured the sounds of shipping bells, recalling a lost soundscape of sailing vessels on the now culverted River Farset (now High Street).
Richard Davis and Liam McCartan presented instrumental and electronic compositions over the megaphone-array, proposing alternative sound-stages or musical listening in the open spaces of Bridge Street and Donegall Street.
Other works used the megaphones to project voices: Andrew Harrison’s announcements for alternative public transport services; John D’Arcy’s mash of policies on public art and historical building maintenance; and Una Lee’s fleeting song, “follow me”.
In the Stairwell / 12 December 2017 / Sonic Arts Research Centre
UMBRELLA’s second public event took place in the stairwell of the Sonic Arts Research Centre building with lights, sounds and voices. An evening of live performances, sound installations and audience participation featuring new works by the members of Umbrella with guest appearances from HIVE Choir and QUBe.
Aidan Deery :: An Abandoned Place
Liam McCartan & Chris Steenson :: Fjord Melt / Cold Hands
Elen Flügge :: Music Boxes in Stair Boxes
Hadi Bastani :: sarcian sinemass
John D’Arcy :: By Association
Matilde Meireles :: XMS (performed by HIVE Choir)
Richard Davis :: Nowhere
Una Lee :: The Longest Day, ever lived by Lumi Gourand
Same Place / 18-22 April 2018 / Sonorities Festival Belfast
Same Place is a video installation of new work by UMBRELLA, exhibited as part of Sonorities Festival 2018 in Sonic Arts Research Centre. Members of UMBRELLA have created a collection of aural and visual reflections on the environments of Belfast in a series of individual cartographies. Exhibiting artists included Aidan Deery, Alex Lucas, Andrew Harrison, Barry Cullen, Elen Flügge, Hadi Bastani, Liam McCartan, John D’Arcy, Pablo Sanz, Richard Davis, Una Lee.
In the Park / 22 June 2019 / Soundscape Park Belfast
