17 Feb 2019

Sound artist and sculptor Susan Philipsz

From Standing Room Only, 2:50 pm on 17 February 2019

Over a supermarket loudspeaker, at a train station and under bridges - these are some of the locations where Turner Art Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz has performed and recorded sound for her art installations. The "sculptor in sound" as she calls herself often uses her own singing voice in her recordings. When she won the Turner Prize in 2010 it was the first time a sound work had been nominated. Her piece, "Lowlands", comprised three versions of a 16th-century Scottish lament, recorded under three bridges. There's a video of the work on our webpage. The Scottish artist has long been Berlin-based, but she's currently in Wellington after installing her latest work, White Flood. It's a 12 channel sound installation and HD film that explores the legacy of 20th century German-Jewish composer Hanns Eisler, and using footage from a documentary for which he wrote the score. Lynn Freeman asked Susan if sound-art installations are more common now than when she took out the Turner Prize. Susan Philipsz' work is part of Passages that's on at the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington. She's giving a public talk there on February 18.