Sounds of the Tamar taken to Turkey for arts exhibition

An innovative sonic arts project which aimed to immerse audiences beneath the surface of the River Tamar is to be showcased at a major new exhibition in Turkey.

Fathom, created by Plymouth University media arts specialists Jane Grant and John Matthias, used cutting edge technology to create an artificial surface 6ft above the floor of a 17th century Royal Navy victualing yard.

Now they have been invited to show their work at the Kasa Gallery in Istanbul as part of a new exhibition, which aims to provide visitors with an insight into sound art practices.

Artist Jane Grant and musician and composer John Matthias, who won the PRS Foundation’s New Music Award in 2008 for their celebrated work, The Fragmented Orchestra, said: “When it was originally shown, Fathom captivated audiences by creating an immersive sonic experience where the volume of one material, water, meets another, air. The changeability of the interaction of these two materials brought together the atmospheric and the submarine, lived human spaces, temporal and ethereal. It is a fantastic opportunity to be able to share Fathom with a much wider, and international audience, and we hope they too will be inspired by the sounds emitted from beneath the ocean waves.”

Fathom, commissioned by the River Tamar Project, was the centrepiece of a public event to launch It’s All About the River, a year-long project culminating in a film festival which celebrates the historical, cultural and industrial importance of the River Tamar, which forms the border between Devon and Cornwall.

Using equipment, supplied by leading loud speaker technology company Martin Audio, a combination of live and recorded sounds were transmitted, enabling visitors to walk around and hear the sounds below the surface of the estuary. They were also able to lift their heads above the ‘Fathom’ to hear the sounds above the water.

The new exhibition in Turkey, It Sounds Like Art, is a collection of sound artworks that explore a variety of environmental, social, aesthetic and conceptual approaches to art. As well as the Plymouth display, it will also feature pieces from international artists John Drever, Music for Installations (MFI) and Nigel Helyer.

The exhibition from April 2-26 precedes the Sound Art Curating conference in London organized by the Kasa Gallery in collaboration with OCR, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, New York University, the LARM Archive and Aalborg University.

It’s All About the River – supported by the Arts Council England and Peninsula Arts at Plymouth University – will take place in September and October 2014, with films screening in venues and open air locations along the tidal reach of the River Tamar. For more information, visit http://tamarproject.org.uk/projects/its-all-about-the-river/.