[hearing, loss]
we advise NOT to use headphones to experience this work
Originally a two-channel video and sound installation, here presented as a single-channel film.
Length: 10:25 minutes
2018
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the unceded land on the Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation on which this work was created. We wish to pay our respects to Elders past and present.
SOLOS V:
JOEL
SPRING
[more about Joel here]
For many of us, listening to the world around us is an integral part of our everyday lives. In ‘Hearing, Loss’ we are drawn into an intimate conversation between the artist, Joel Spring, and his mother conversing about the long-term effects of otitis media, an inflammatory disease known for its globally higher rate of affliction upon Indigenous children. Their discussion asks us to consider the connections between healthcare, education and access.
Through the audio distortion woven throughout Spring’s work, we must ask ourselves what it means to listen. What does it mean to lose our hearing? Perhaps we could consider hearing, loss as investigation. Hearing loss as accessing the inaudible: the unheard stories, narrative and histories. Hearing loss as a meditation for listening.
[artist talk]
[artist statement]
[resources]
This is a paper published earlier in 2021 entitled Hearing, Loss, and No Comment by Thomas Ragnar, Bridget Chappell & the artist Joel Sherwood-Spring. This text offers more insight into the concepts between Hearing, Loss, and Spring's practice. It can be accessed through the link here, or through clicking on the image to the left.
Image: Four stills of the inner ear taken during the recording of the film, as seen during an ear examination through an otoscope.
Joel Spring's Hearing, Loss was originally commissioned by Liquid Architecture in 2018 as part of the exhibition Eavesdropping at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, and subsequently shown at City Gallery, Wellington.
Image: Two stills of the inner ear taken during the recording of the film, as seen during an ear examination through an otoscope.
The following publication, edited byJames Parker and Joel Stern, pictured to the right, was produced for the original commission of Spring's Hearing, Loss.
The edited volume includes an interview with Spring as well as several other works. You can access the 'Eavesdropping: A Reader' here and download a copy here.
