Making Space
Olivia Louvel | In the Name of
The installation comprises 7 ovoid, speaker-powered, voice sculptures that serve as vessels for women's narratives. Together, they evoke a cluster of red water lilies, a plant that symbolises resilience and the ability to overcome adversity. Each voice sculpture is equipped with a miniature speaker. The 7-channel audio system randomly distributes the voices, creating an ever-evolving soundscape. The vocal polyphony interweaves the artist’s chant with fragmented accounts from US women whose health has been affected by the abortion ban, forcing them to carry non-viable pregnancies to term.
These anonymised voices have been re-enacted from published textual and audiovisual documentary sources using the Hume AI voice interface.
Olivia will be using her residency to explore how this new work functions aurally, spatially, psychologically and ethically for audiences. And she is convening two viewing sessions, each followed by a short Q&A session to be able to gather feedback. More information and booking links coming soon.
Places are limited to a maximum of 15 for each session, and tickets must be booked in advance.
Please note: the work contains no graphic description, but the audio in itself may be triggering.
In the Name of is being developed with to support from Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice programme (DYCP).
About The Artist
Olivia Louvel is an artist, composer and researcher whose work comprises sound recordings, installations, video art, 3D prints, and action paintings. She has been commissioned by a diverse range of art and music/sound organisations, including Towner Eastbourne, The Hepworth Wakefield, Hepworth Research Network, Middlesbrough Art Week, Yorkshire Sound Women Network and Sound Art Brighton.
Her research lies at the intersection of voice and sculpture, particularly in what she calls ‘voice sculptures’. This manifests in her practice in various forms, including digitally carving Barbara Hepworth’s voice in the video art piece The Sculptor Speaks, creating generative sound murals with miniature speakers, 3D-printing her voice and investigating the acoustic relationship between voice and sculpture within Lukas Kühne’s site-specific sculpture Tvísöngur in remote Iceland.
Recent projects include doggerLANDscape, a video art piece inspired by the submerged forest of Doggerland, presented at Towner Eastbourne and ATP Gallery; and LOL, a site-specific sonic intervention reflecting the state of political affairs in Britain, presented via the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network during Middlesbrough Art Week, for which she was awarded an Ivor Novello Award in Sound Art.
“There is a sedimentary accumulation, a layering of generational trauma linked to pregnancy and miscarriage, within our biological cells; even if we are not personally affected, we carry within us the stories of other women: our mothers, grandmothers and sisters.”
