Held Down, Expanding Residency

Clunes Free Library
November 1st – December 13th 2021

Photographs of Held Down Expanding
Image description: Three photographs of Held Down, Expanding from different angles. The first shows a black structure front on with an open door. Inside seven small speakers pointing towards a reclining chair in the middle are lit by a red glow. The structure is backlit in a room at the Abbottsford Covent in Collingwood, Melbourne, which has an old, industrial look. The second photo shows a silhouette of a person lying in a reclining chair surrounded by speakers, the room glowing red. The third shows the black structure from the outside from the side.

During this residency Thembi will be reworking their sound installation ‘Held Down, Expanding’ for improved functionality, wheelchair accessibility and covid-safety, in collaboration with designer Jen Tran. This installation was first presented at MONA FOMA in 2018, followed by showings at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne (pictured) as part of Liquid Architecture’s Polyphonic Social program, and at Red Door Gallery as part of Clunes’ Booktown Festival.

Using a custom- designed multi-speaker sound system, ‘Held Down, Expanding’ provides a unique, expanding and contracting experience of abstract sound for one person at a time. It was created as a reflection of the non-verbal, felt experience of perceptual disorientation caused by trauma and its manifestation as symptoms of what might be labelled mental illness.

Held Down, Expanding was a finalist for the 2019 APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music. More information on the installation can be found here.

Creative Victoria Logo

The Held Down, Expanding Residency and Remount is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Event Five >