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 Holocaust Centre North, 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.
Her current research uses sound to ask philosophical and material questions about the spatio-temporal physicality of certain sites and our perceptions of them. She has travelled 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 these resonant spaces. She has explored the ways in which techniques of the audible create new ways of engaging with sites and their histories.
Wilson has exhibited widely in North America and Europe. Exhibitions include Cerebro(s) at Fundación Telefónica, Madrid (2023) and CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) in Barcelona (2022); Encountering Survival, Holocaust Centre North, Huddersfield (2022); AIR MATTERS: Learning from Heathrow, Watermans Arts Centre, London (2019–2020); Meetings, ET4U, West Jutland, Denmark (2019); Topophobia (Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool and Spacex Gallery, Exeter 2012); Re-sounding Falkland (Falkland Estate, Scotland 2010, with David Chapman); I Hear Too: Live (York Minster 2009); Composure (Impressions Gallery, Bradford 2008).
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 The Oxford Companion of Sound Art (OUP 2021); In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker: Affect, Materiality and Meaning Making (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2009); A Fearsome Heritage: Diverse Legacies of the Cold War (Left Coast Press, 2007) and Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now (Peter Lang, 2009).
Louise K Wilson lives in West Yorkshire.
Contact Information
website: www.lkwilson.org
instagram: @wilsonlouisek
Education
2004–2012 PhD Fine Art, University of Derby
1993–1996 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
2010–date Lecturer (Art and Design), School of Design, University of Leeds
Selected Exhibitions
2023 Cerebro(s), Fundación Telefónica, Madrid
2022
- Cerebro(s), CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona), Barcelona
- Encountering Survival, Holocaust Centre North, Huddersfield
2019–2020 AIR MATTERS: Learning from Heathrow, Watermans Arts Centre, London
2019 Meetings, ET4U, West Jutland, Denmark
2018 Documents. Alternatives, Bath Spa University
2017 Thackray Uncovered, Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
2016
- As Above So Below, Allenheads Contemporary Arts (October)
- States of Mind: Tracing the edges of consciousness, Wellcome Collection, London (Feb–Oct)
2015 Submerged Silent Service for Sound Activism, Ohrenhoch, Berlin (August)
2013 Dukes Wood Project, Dukes Wood, Nottinghamshire
2012
- Soundworks, ICA, London (June)
- Topophobia, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Spacex Exeter
- Horarium for Mistaken Presence, The Greyfriars, Lincoln (September)
- Missing Scenes: An Evening at Hanging Rock, Exeter Phoenix (July)
2010 Re-Sounding Falkland (with David Chapman), Falkland Palace and Falkland Estate, Scotland
2008 Arcadia (with David Chapman), Falkland Palace, Scotland
Selected Video Screenings
2020 Euphony, retrospective of work, G-Biennale, Victoria, Australia
2019
- 23rd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Praha, Czech Republic (September)
- Seeing Systems, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2006
- CineCity, the Brighton Film Festival (November)
- Synch Festival, Athens, Greece (July)
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Holland
Selected Awards
2010 Scottish Arts Council Grant for Re-Sounding Falkland
2008 Calouste Gulbenkian Grant for Falkland Estate project with David Chapman
2005–2010 NESTA Fellowship
2002 London Arts Board Visual Arts Award
2001 Short-term visitor grant, National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Washington DC
Selected Residencies and Commissions
2021–2022 Audio Guides Commission, Huddersfield Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre
2020–date Hardwick Gallery Artist at Distance Residency
2016 As Above So Below, Allenheads Contemporary Arts
2006 ACE Oxford and Melbourne Fellowship, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
Selected Book Chapters
2021 Chthonic: 72 hours below Earth day: the sensed, the remembered, the lost and the reconstructed, in Oxford Handbook of Sound Art (Oxford University Press)
2017 Processual Engagements: Sebaldian pilgrimages to Orford Ness, in In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker: Affect, Materiality and Meaning-Making (Rowman & Littlefield International)
2016 The Routledge Companion to Military Research Methods (Routledge)
2009 Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now (Peter Lang)
2007 A Fearsome Heritage: Diverse Legacies of the Cold War (Left Coast Press)