The Showroom
Project

Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Aural Contract: Parts 1 and 2

2010–2012

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is a London-based artist whose projects are concerned with the politics of listening and the relationship between sound and urbanity.

Part 1 (February – March 2010): Abu Hamdan worked with a group of young people to pursue the premise that the voice and its mode of delivery are the principal means of legal operations. Over a series of playful workshops and recording sessions Aural Contract reimagined the multiple voices that both shape the courtroom and leak beyond its walls into the social sphere. An exhibition of the work took place at The Showroom from 10 – 20 March 2010.

Part 2 (February 2011 – January 2012): Abu Hamdan further examined a contemporary politics of listening through a focus on the role of the voice in law. A series of workshops and performances involved a core group of participants from The Showroom’s neighbourhood in collectively hearing and enunciating in space the polemic at the core of the project. The workshops and performances integrated with other research strategies such as talks, seminars, interviews and screenings during 2011. The recorded material was combined with archived recordings gathered from numerous, global sources to produce a series of audio documentaries, later exhibited at The Showroom in spring 2012.

This is the inaugural project of a series of participation-based commissions under the umbrella title of Communal Knowledge.

Communal Knowledge is supported by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, John Lyon's Charity, Westminster Arts and The Showroom Supporters Scheme.

Part 2 is within the framework of ‘Survival Kit. Art linking society, knowledge and activism’, with the support of the Culture 2007–2013 programme of the European Union.

  1. 00861
    Event Short Course led by Lawrence Abu Hamdan

  2. Lah_exhibit_2012_image_1
    Exhibition Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Aural Contract: The Freedom of Speech Itself

  3. 01306
    Event Survival Kit 3