Someone chewing is some kind of art show
An exhibition of sound and multimedia exploring the politics of noise evidently offers plenty of food for thought
THE sound of silence is all around us; indeed, within us.
The noise that denotes nothingness, and yet has a presence all its own, goes unheard within the cacophony of the soundscape of every day life, or indeed, the electro-magnetic spectrum of our communicating machines.
With the right cue, however, we can tune in and – possibly – perceive what the gaps in 'transmission' have to say about the immersive soundscape of the everyday.
As introductions go, that's pretty purple (if not quite poetic), but does it capture the essence of an exhibition currently running in a Lebanese gallery? Questionable, for sure, but it's what sprung to mind as the eye explored what the press notice had to say.
Really, it's not so much about the silence, as the background sounds we filter out, until something calls our attention to its presence. If that better captures the gist of the exhibition, Someone Chewing, all well and good; as art installation go, it is clearly intended to provoke more than the usual run of artistic rumination.
The exhibition, currently running until 1 August at the Sfeir-Senler Karantina Gallery in Beirut, focuses on the work of Lawrence Abu Hamdan. The question running through the exhibition, is who decides the 'silence' from the 'noise' to manufacture the 'sounds' of living?
We probably don't think of noise as somehow political; silence, perhaps, not its opposite. But Abu Hamdan's solo exhibition is said to explore precisely that.
Abu Hamdan is a British-Lebanese researcher, filmmaker, artist and activist – as he puts it, a 'private ear' – and his audio investigations can be found in trials, advocacy campaigns, or journalistic reports, as well as live performances, films, and multimedia installations.
His investigations focus on sound, and they have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, as advocacy for organisations such as Amnesty International and Defence for Children International, and presentations at the UN security council.
“Power resides with those who define what constitutes noise,” says Abu Hamdan. This notion is fundamental to his exploration of the urban noise-scape of Cairo in the post-2013 military coup. The same applies to his work in the Syrian Golan Heights occupied territories, where he witnessed political unrest brought about by the planned installation of wind turbines in proximity to people's homes.
In 2023, he launched Earshot, said to be the world's first not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the study of audio for human rights and environmental advocacy.
One of the projects he has undertaken with fellow Earshot researchers was a video game based on sound recordings of similar turbines in Gaildorf, Germany, along with the recordings of ambient noise in captured in the Golan Heights. The installation is designed to mimic a popular style of streamers, showing a recording of the game commented by the artist.
In his new works from 2025, Abu Hamdan deals with noise and interference in media equipment. There's a clear political – nay humanitarian – impulse, with its focus on Israel's ongoing perpetration of genocide in Gaza.
“This installation uncovers the imperceptible electromagnetic fields that accompany us all the time through our portable electronic devices,” says the gallery.
More than that, it explores the “systematic targeting of cameras, livestreams and journalists” since the start of the genocide in Gaza, and during the invasion of Lebanon by the Israeli army. This aspect features the use of the last, sometimes distorted, frames of the targeted recording equipment.
In so doing, it creates an installation that shows the persistence of media through forces of erasure.
In the gallery's cinema space of the Gallery, Abu Hamdan is presenting 45th Parallel, the artist’s award-winning work from 2022. Shot in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House – a unique municipal site that straddles Canada and the United States – it sets out to question the im(permeability) of borders and the jurisdictions they fall under.
“Showcasing installation, film, and sound pieces, the exhibition adds another layer to Abu Hamdan’s ongoing commitment to leverage the pervasive nature of sound in order to resist oppression,” the gallery says.
Sounds fascinating; something to chew on, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.
MC
Image credit: All images are courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut/Hamburg