30 September 2020

In a first for Shepparton Art Museum (SAM), Sound Seen launches the art museum’s Artist Projects online platform. This is a newly commissioned artwork by Melbourne based artist, Sarah crowEST, available on SAM’s website from Thursday 1 October 2020.

Sound Seen will consist of a series of artworks conceived from visual scores for experimental musical responses but that can also function as dynamic visual artworks in their own right. CrowEST has produced five open-source, diagrammatic scores, developed and documented through a shifting, graphic process, which will be free to download and interpret on SAM’s website from 1 October.

“We’re delighted to be working with Sarah crowEST to present the first of SAM’s online, digital art projects.” SAM Artistic Director/CEO Rebecca Coates said. “This continues SAM’s commitment to presenting artist-led projects that connect with our community across platforms. Truly democratic and participatory, Sarah invites our audience to experience her work through sight, sound and musical responses.”

CrowEST explores connections between text, drawing, painting, noise and sound. Her works invite audience members to engage directly with the work. Her work spans discipline boundaries of contemporary art, publishing and performance. Her often collaborative projects involve sound artists and the production of diagrammatic scores, instructional works and word-events presented in the form of paintings and backdrops. With a focus on interpretation, she regularly engages in collaborations where experimental translations produce performative outcomes.

“This new commission by Sarah crowEST explores the dynamic, multi-form possibilities of language.” SAM Curator Lara Merrington said. “Her symbolic visual scores are informed by and in turn provide; infinite possibilities of interpretation. In the current context of a screen saturated world, the work is a refreshing plunge into experimental and cross-art form practice involving aural experience, collaborative work and performative outcomes. We are looking forward to seeing the public interact with this project in their own diverse ways.”

Score #1 has been co-developed with sound artist AHI (aka Luke Whitten) and Rara Zulu, who have produced a recording to be heard online in conjunction with the visual scores. Another of the scores will be co-developed with local musicians from Shepparton, to be made available from late-October.

Sound Seen: Sarah crowEST

From 1 October 2020 and ongoing online

ENDS