[ISEA2013] Artist Statement: Leah Barclay – Shifting Nature

Artist Statement

For ISEA2013, Leah Barclay has composed an electroacoustic performance piece based on environmental field recordings made during her Sound Mirrors project, in which she travelled through Australia, India, Korea, China and Brazil capturing the sounds of significant rivers and collaborating with their surrounding communities. The source materials range from hydrophone recordings of the Amazon River Dolphin in central Brazil to pilgrims chanting at dusk on the banks of the Pamba in southern India. Shifting Nature explores rivers as the lifeblood of communities and underscores the value of listening in our current state of ecological uncertainty, weaving diverse cultural and natural soundscapes into a dense and unpredictable sonic environment.  leahbarclay.com/portfolio_page/shifting-nature-2013

  • Leah Barclay is a composer, sound artist and curator working at the intersection of art, science, technology and the environment. Her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally, and she has received numerous awards, including the Premier of Queensland’s inaugural National New Media Scholarship (2009), the Asialink Performing Artist Residency for South Korea (2009) and the HELM Award for Environmental Art (2010). She has received major grants to produce ambitious community projects, and has directed and curated intercultural projects across Australia, India and Korea. Leah is passionate about the role interdisciplinary art can play in community empowerment, social activism and cultural change. leahbarclay.com