2012–2013
In 2012 The Otolith Collective and The Showroom commissioned British sound artists and theorists Mark Fisher and Justin Barton to make a new sound work based on a walk made by the artists along the Suffollk coastline in 2006.
The resulting sound work, On Vanishing Land (2013) is an expansive audio-essay on the Eerie in the Suffolk landscape. It includes commissions from nine digital musicians, interviews and the reflections of the artists.
On Vanishing Land was exhibited at The Showroom from 6 February – 6 April 2013, accompanied by an untitled sequence of images, which the artists produced in collaboration with artist Andy Sharp (English Heretic).
Three events accompanied the exhibition, including a performance by John Foxx and Raime.
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On Vanishing Land has since toured to Australia and was released as an album, on Hyperdub, in 2019
In 2019, The Showroom hosted the first combined playback of On Vanishing Land and londonunderlondon, also by Fisher and Barton. The event, Incursions, Departures, culminated in a conversation between Barton, Dalia Neis (voice in londonunderlondon) and Pete Wiseman (musician on On Vanishing Land), along with a Q&A and general discussion.
On Vanishing Land was jointly commissioned and produced by The Showroom and The Otolith Collective. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
We gratefully acknowledge funding from PRS for Music Foundation.
Cultural theorist, Fisher (1968–2017) wrote Capitalist Realism (2009) and Ghosts Of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (2014) and was Programme Leader of the MA in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.
MoreBorn in 1962, Barton is a philosopher and writer who has published academic philosophical articles and has collaborated on projects with artists and theorists. With Mark Fisher he made the audio-essays londonunderlondon (2005) and On Vanishing Land (2013). In December 2019, The Showroom presented *'Incursions, Departures' - the first combined playback of the audio-essay works, followed by a discussion with Justin Barton, Dalia Neis and Pete Wiseman.
MoreThe Otolith Collective is a publicly funded, not-for-profit arts organisation run by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar of the award-winning artist collective The Otolith Group. The Otolith Collective develops research into lectures, seminars, discussions and screening programmes with a wide range of museums, foundations and private institutions.
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