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Louise K Wilson

Louise K Wilson is a visual artist who makes installations, live works, sound works and single channel videos. Processes of research are central to her practice and she frequently involves the participation of individuals from industry, museums, medicine and the scientific community in the making of work. Previous associations have included the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Science Museum, the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training facility in Moscow, the RSPB and the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service.

She has exhibited widely in North America and Europe. Recent exhibitions include Topophobia (Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool and Spacex Gallery, Exeter 2012); Re-sounding Falkland on the Falkland Estate (Scotland 2010, made with David Chapman), I Hear Too: Live (York Minster 2009), Composure (Impressions Gallery, Bradford 2008), Post-Cinema (RMIT Project Space, Melbourne 2007); Sonic Arts Network Expo (Plymouth 2007) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2006). In 2006 she was awarded a NESTA Fellowship. Her published writing includes an interview with Paul Virilio (CTHEORY, 1994); a commissioned essay for ‘Private Views: Artists Working Today’ (Serpents Tail, 2004); artist pages for 'Zero Gravity - A Cultural Users Guide' (Arts Catalyst, Cornerhouse books 2005), and book chapters for 'A Fearsome Heritage: Diverse Legacies of the Cold War' (Left Coast Press, 2007) and 'Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now' (Peter Lang, 2009).

Her current research uses the medium of sound to ask philosophical and material questions about the spatio-temporal physicality of certain sites and our perceptions of them. She has traveled to numerous (military and scientific) sites including nuclear submarines, US listening stations, university halls, marine research environments, rocket launch sites and disused RAF bases in pursuit of the acoustics of resonant spaces. She has explored the ways in which technologies of the audible create new ways of engaging with the lost traces of institutional places.

Louise K Wilson lives in West Yorkshire.

Education

  • 2004-12
    • PhD Fine Art, University of Derby
  • 1993-96   
    • MFA Studio Arts (Open Media) Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 1987   
    • BA Hons (1st Class) Fine Art, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne

Current Teaching

Has lectured widely. Currently:

  • 2004 - date.
    • Part time lecturer at the University of Lincoln, BA and MA Fine Art courses
  • 2010 - date.
    • Part-time lecturer (Art and Design) University of Leeds

Selected Solo Exhibitions

  • 2011   
    • Pane (with Spencer Roberts) for 24/7 project space at the Gooden Gallery, Vyner Street, London
  • 2010   
    • Weep O Mine Eyes video temporarily installed at (National Trust property) Barrington Court, Somerset as part of Scion (Artwork of the Month),
    • Re-Sounding Falkland (with David Chapman), site-specific video and sound works for Falkland Palace and Falkland Estate, Falkland, Scotland (publication)
  • 2008   
    • Arcadia (with David Chapman), sound installation for Falkland Palace, Scotland

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • 2012   
    • An Uncommon Past (12 invited artists from the University of Derby), Sichuan Fine Art Institute in China - as part of the British Council's Festival of British Art in China entitled UK NOW
    • La Biennale 2012, at the I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State University, USA
    • Topophobia Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London Jan- Feb 2012 and the Bluecoat, Liverpool Mar - April 2012. Commissioned new work for Spacex Gallery, Exeter (July 2012)
  • 2010   
    • Comeback Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany
  • 2009   
    • I Hear Too Live, York Minster
  • 2008   
    • Composure Impressions Gallery, Bradford

Selected Video screenings

  • 2012   
    • Gleaners Screening at the London Short Film Festival
  • 2008   
    • Evolution 2008 (Lumen) Leeds
  • 2007   
    • Evolution 2007 (Lumen) Leeds
  • 2006   
    • CineCity, the Brighton Film Festival
    • Synch Festival, Athens, Greece
    • Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Holland

Selected Awards

  • 2010   
    • Scottish Arts Council Grant for Re-Sounding Falkland
  • 2008   
    • Calouste Gulbenkian Grant for the Falkland Estate project with David Chapman
  • 2005-10
    • NESTA Fellowship
  • 2002   
    • London Arts Board Visual Arts Award
  • 2001   
    • Short-term visitor grant, National Air and Space Museum, (Smithsonian Institution) Washington DC

Selected Placements/Residencies

  • 2006   
    • ACE Oxford and Melbourne Fellowship, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
  • 2005   
    • The Bigger Picture Video Commission
    • Residency in the North West Film Archive, Manchester
  • 2004   
    • Fire Service Video Commission Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service
  • 2003   
    • Arena Baltic/Samling Foundation, Newcastle/ Gateshead
  • 2002-03
    • Memory and Forgetting Sci/Art Project, PEALS/ Northern Print, Newcastle

Conference Lectures/Panel Discussions

  • 2012   
    • Artist’s talk for Topophobia, the Bluecoat, Liverpool
    • Topophobia Symposium, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London
  • 2011   
    • Unknown Fields Division Symposium: From the ATOMIC to the COSMIC, The Architectural Association, London.
    • Tuned City, Tallinn, Estonia
  • 2010   
    • The Great Glen Artists Airshow, HICA, Scotland (Arts Catalyst)
    • Spectral Traces, LAND2 Symposium, University of Leeds
  • 2009   
    • I Hear Too - Improving Heritage Experience through Acoustic Reality and Audio Research, Railway Museum, York, (joint with David Chapman).
  • 2008   
    • Sounding Out 4, University of Sunderland (joint with David Chapman),

Selected Book Chapters

  • 2010   
    • Lethality and Vulnerability in Ariane Bankes & Jonathan Reekie (eds) New Aldeburgh Anthology (Boydell Press)
  • 2009   
    • Notes on a Record of Fear: On the Threshold of the Audible in Cornelius Holtorf & Angela Piccini (eds) Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now (Peter Lang, Frankfurt)
    • Out to the waste: Spadeadam and the Cold War in John Schofield & Wayne Cocroft (eds) A Fearsome Heritage: 2007 Diverse Legacies of the Cold War (One World Archaeology, Left Coast Press Inc)

Selected Published Writings/Artworks

  • 2012   
    • Wilson, LK. (and Schofield,J, Cocroft, W, Boulton, A, and Dunlop, G.) ’The aerodrome’: Art, heritage and landscape at former RAF Coltishall, Journal of Social Archaeology Volume 12 Issue 1 February 2012 pp. 110 - 132
  • 2011   
    • Wilson, LK (and Chapman, D) ‘The Caress of the Audio: Re-sounding Falkland’, Social Semiotics Vol. 21, No. 4, pp: 517-529
    • Wilson, LK (and Chapman, D) eds. Re-sounding Falkland, catalogue of critical essays
  • 2010   
    • Chapman, D. and Wilson, LK ‘Falkland: a Sonic Investigation of Place’, Journal of Media Practice, Vol.11, No.3. pp: 231-242 (with Louise K. Wilson).
  • 2008   
  • 2007   
    • Wilson, LK. UOVO 14 (on Soundscape CD, curated by David Toop)
  • 2006   
    • Wilson, LK. Notes on A Record of Fear: On the Threshold of the Audible in Leonardo Music Journal, Journal 16 Noises Off: Sound Beyond Music

 

Louise K Wilson
e-mail   :  lkwilson@dircon.co.uk
website :  www.lkwilson.org