Artists Against The Bomb: Concurrent exhibitions at Judd Foundation andthe United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Artists Against the Bomb is organized by Estudio Pedro Reyes in collaboration with the Campaign
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
The exhibition features newly comissioned work in the media of posters, postcards, billboards,
banners, flags and t-shirts and
is accompanied by a 336-pp. book featuring all participating works.
The cannons and artillery included in this survey are all on public display in Greater
London. The hypothetical strike points of the guns have been calculated using ballistics
information and the complementary pairs of photographs are printed on oposing pages.
The simultaneous firing of all these guns is readable as a performance proposal, but one
that is extremely unlikely to happen. The book contains an introduction, an index of
technical information and an interview with the artist by Jon Wood.
Above: Briefcase with materials for pyrotechnic book launch at Turner Contemporary, Margate
Monumental Guns and Their Targets
was commmissioned in conjunction
with Turner Contemporary Margate, who hosted an exhibition of work
by British pyrotechnic artist, Stephen Cripps in 2022-23
December 2022
Pyrotechnic launch of Monumental Guns and Their Targets
The launch of the book was celebrated by firing it into the air using a pyrotechnic mortar.
Link to film of launch
on Vimeo
< Open Window > Spoleto, Italy
Surprise encounters with sound, emanating from open windows in the town of Spoleto.
<open window> 2021 Map of walking route around Spoleto
Sean Dower Percussion (2017-21) 7'52"
Sound emerges from an open first floor window. The public might discover the sound by accident
or by following a map available from local shops and kiosks. The recording (a cascade of waterdrops
resonating inside a galvanized metal drainpipe) may at first sound like repetitive noise, however a closer
listen reveals complex underlying structure and resonances. Photos by Serafino Amato
+ ZAPP MAGAZINE CLUB NIGHT - 20th February 2019 at Cintetol, Amsterdam with Kathe Burkhart, Sean Dower, Karl Holmqvist, Annika Ström stand-in and Cosy Camping.
Sean Dower Henry Moore Institute Fellow for 2019
During his Fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute Dower studied the archive of sculptors’ papers
relating to Stephen Cripps (1952–1982), an artist known for his ground-breaking work with kinetic
sculpture, sound, pyrotechnics and performance.
Find Your World in Ours - Supersonic Festival and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Find Your World in Ours, curated by Mark Titchner
20 June - 9 September 2018, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
22-24 June 2018, Supersonic Festival, Birmingham, UK
Shelter, 1996. Video digitally remastered for HD video
January 2018
SEAN DOWER publication, with an essay by Jo Melvin
Published by Dom Omladine Beograda / Legat Franklin (2017)
Softcover with embossed relief. 184 pages (26 x 21 x 1.5cm)
Edition: 300
ISBN: 978-86-7698-027-7
The Music in Trees - ResonanceExtra, Gravity Waves radio show* plays @ 28:20 minutes in
The Music in Trees at 28:20 in this 2 hour radio show, broadcast on 23rd April 2016
The Music in Trees 2001 (4 mins)
The Music in Trees is an audio work made in 2001 from loose cassette tape found abandoned
on the streets (and in the trees) of East London. The discarded tape was spliced back into a
cassette housing randomly and the resulting 'damaged' soundtrack highlights the music of the
time and the spcificity of the technology used to play it.
December 2015
Taxi Argument by Sean Dower: track 71 on Open The Window
OPEN THE WINDOW
Linear Obsessional's third annual "open access" release is built around a simple premise:
Open your window and record two minutes of what you can hear, interacting with it live,
or editing and processing the recordings later. From this concept has emerged this 85 track,
2 hour 50 minute compilation of extraordinary recordings from all over the world.
Released December 24, 2015
Compiled and Edited by Richard Sanderson for Linear Obsessional recordings.
Download includes a 62 page PDF booklet of contributor notes, photographs and an essay.
BMW 325i video - screened 24 hrs a day at The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth in Shoreditch, London. Frieze week - October 2015
Curated by Sean Mclusky and 1-2-3-4 Records, with Kieran Leonard. See page on BMW 325i >
'
July 2015
De La Warr Pavilion and Project 78 Gallery present: Dear Serge Offsite@Project 78
Screen grabs of camera live-feed for Dear Serge Offsite@project 78
25.07.15. Project 78 Gallery, Norman Road, St Leonards-on-Sea.
Featuring: Prinzhorn Dance School / Sean Dower / Joe Snape / Noteherder
and McCloud / Cliff Stevenson / Christina Yeo Clarey / Simon Barker and
Nayan Kulkarni / DJ Cheesemaster / Bartosz Dylewski.
Landfall 2013 - Video exhibited at POOL - Cafe Gallery London
Above: still from Landfall - 2013. 13 mins. Projection with soundtrack by Sonofapup
Landfall was shot at night in the harbour of Peurto Los Cabos, Mexico. The lights used to guide
ships to harbour flash hypnotically and asynchonously. The film features an unsettling sound
composition by the artist.
ON AIR - Exhibition and residency at Beaconsfield Gallery London.
The residency resulted in 2 installations open to the public and a set of unique audio recordings.
Link to sound recordings, images and more information: ON AIR
ON AIR - whiteboard drawing 2015
December 2014
Short edit of performance: 'Break it Down - A Performance' (2006) - now online
Video excerpts of a live performance with percussion and visual effects - 7 min. A collaboration between Sean Dower and Richard Wilson See here for more information and images
Break it Down - Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. 2006
November 2014
Sean Dower 'Live from the Studio' - broadcast to The Centre for Remote Possibilities, Matt's Gallery London on 20.11.14
Live 2 hour transmission of video and sound from the artist's studio in Deptford to a Futuro house situated on the roof of Matt's Gallery in Bow, East London.
The artist played emulated modular synths, mixed with live percussion and Electronic and Musique Concret records from the 60's and 70's.
The project was facilitated by artist Craig Barnes, whose renovated Futuro house was included in the exhibition 'Revolver II'.
October 2014
'/seconds' exhibition at Sharjah Art Foundation 11.10.14 – 10.12.14 Above: Both Sides of the Story #1-3 (photograms from news clippings) 1993 - 140 x 110 cm each
click on images for more information
August 2014
Noise transmissions permeated with subterranean foreboding.
3 tracks recorded in an arid landscape on the edge of the Libyan Sea.
'Minotaur' is the third release by Sonofapup, following on from 'sɜrbərəs' (2001-2003)
and '1st Geneeration (1995-2000).
The video is a walk around the exhibition The Voyeur, which combined sculpture,
photography and seemingly familiar objects with the technology of sound.
The audience had to move around the space to experience both the sculpture and
soundtrack. Much of the work drew parallels between modernity (and modern
technology) and more ancient philosophies.
The works included: photographs emitting sound from their surface, sound
diffusing sculptural reliefs, vibrating cabinets, a satellite dish projecting a beam
of sound, a floor drum resonating with noises, a long plastic curtain with white
noise cascading down it and a muffled voice, emanating from a tiny speaker
inside a glass, which was attached to a wall
During the exhibition, the artist performed on top of the 4.5m tall St Simeon's Drum
Riser (made of stacked pallets), whilst CCTV relayed a bird's eye view of the
performances down to ground level.
November 2013 WHOOSH - Screenprints on aluminium for the lift at El Ganzo hotel Mexico.
Video documentation (43 seconds - silent)
WHOOSH - Onomatopoeic sound work for lift shaft - 2013
Fluorescent green screen prints on aluminium 1100 x 1100mm (5 panels)
One of several works commissioned during a residency at Hotel El Ganzo in
Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur - Mexico.
November 2013
Video interview for Mexican magazine Limulus "The paradox of sound" by Santiago Maza
Artist in Residence: Hotel El Ganzo, Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Three works resulted from this residency:
1. WHOOSH - 2013 (onomatopoeic text work for lift shaft). More details here
2. Pangas de Pescadores - 2013 (hand painted signs.) More details here
3. Landfall - 2013/2014 (music composition and film). More details here
THE LATE SHOWS AT BALTIC 39 (PROJECT SPACE)
SATURDAY 18 MAY 2013
DISCONNECTED (The left hand doesn’t know…)
Curated by Matt Calderwood and designed to be staged within his exhibition
Paper Over the Cracks at BALTIC 39, this event brings together a collection of film,
video and sound works by artists including Calderwood, Declan Clarke,
Sean Dower, Matt Crawley, Melanie Manchot, Tim Knowles and Paul
McDevitt. The works explored collapsing systems, relationships, devices and
machines, and broken communications.
Videos exhibited by Sean Dower (click on titles for links):
New digital realease of The Curfew Recordings (1984)
The Curfew Recordings 2013
The Curfew Recordings were made at a disused industrial site on the river Tyne in
1984. The on-site, improvised performances featured John Smith (then publisher of
Interchange magazine), Sean Dower (ex Death Magazine 52 & later of Bow Gamelan
Ensemble) and John Mylotte (of the band Metgumnebone).
The recordings were made inside a cylindrical, steel-plated silo (approximately 10m
tall and 26m in diameter). The structure was originally used for bitumen storage and
still had soft tar underfoot at the time of the recordings. The instrumentation is
acoustic and the tracks have not been processed, the reverb is entirely due to the
structure in which the performances were made. The performers worked by
candlelight (there was no electricity on site) and the material was captured using a
battery operated, portable cassette deck.
Instrumentation included: bull roarers, spirit whistles, human thy-bone trumpet,
chimes, pipes, gongs, flutes, drums, projectiles, scraped and bowed objects and other
materials (glass, metal, bones and wood).
This is the first digital transfer of the original tapes to become available.
CD on Harbinger Sound (Harbinger 110)
December 2012
Bag of Blood: sound recording of '20 pieces of Silver' now online
Performance took place at Ikon East, Birmingham UK. 2007
The Voyeur: Sat 30th June 2012 - Sun 16th September 2012
De La Warr Pavilion. Marina, Bexhill, East Sussex. UK. TN40 1DP
For The Voyeur, Dower constructed a space where objects, images and live
performance interacted in the production and modification of sound.
Drawing inspiration from thinkers who radically question our understanding of
the physical world, such as Elizabethan alchemist and mathematician, John
Dee, French novelist Alan Robbe Grillet and the 5th Century mystic, Saint
Simeon of Stylites, the artist reconfigures the gallery space into a complex sound
system. Links between modernism, Dada and more ancient systems of thought
are explored, as is the perception of space through sound.
During the exhibition, Dower made 3 unique performances on top of the
towering St Simeon's drum riser, relayed back down to ground level via CCTV.
Click here to read an excerpt from an interview with Sean Dower by curator
Jane Won.
01.09.12
Live performance on St Simeon's drum riser
cctv recording of performance #3 on 01.09.12 (full performance 11 mins) Installation images and information about The Voyeur
3 x performances during The Voyeur exhibition: #1 = 30.06.12 - #2 = 14.07.12 - #3 = 01.09.12
17.07.12 - Gallery Vela (festivela)
Videos 1988-1993 and performance of the Ultimate Brown Sound
Release of double vinyl disc of Death Magazine 52 on Harbinger Sound
1980's Black Country based 'underground/noise/Industrial' group Death Magazine 52
Sleeve Notes:
"Between 1982 and 1984 Death Magazine 52 played around 20 shows mostly within the
Black Country region of the U.K. Sometimes they played under the name Spontaneous
Human Combustion, which was the moniker they originally started out with. These
recordings capture the core group and its floating membership at various stages of their
existence. Recordings from the studio sessions and live sets, including playing to a
school hall full of teenage girls at 3pm one afternoon, and as the final band to play at the
legendary Equinox Event before the plugs got pulled and the police arrived. The
recordings are of a raw nature and should be considered as historical documentation."
The full DM52 story will appear in the magazine As Loud As Possible #2.
Ten photographs and digital audio recordings made at specific sites across London in 1997.
The recordings reflect localised sound culture and how this interacts with architecture,
technology and the natural world.
POWER AND LIGHT (снага и светлост) 1990
Black and white Super 8 film, transferred to video 2010 - 4 mins
Power and Light is a top to bottom, interior study of a derelict power station in Belgrade,
which was the site for live performance. Film and soundtrack by Sean Dower.
Exhibited in: TAPS - Improvisations with Paul Burwell - presented by Matt's Gallery.
02.06.10 - 20.11.10: KEEP ME POSTED
Group exhibition at POSTED - 67 Wilton Way, London E8 1BG
Thursday to Sunday, 11am – 5pm
Also by appointment: +44 (0)20 7923 2258 www.postedprojects.co.uk
12th June 2010 - Performance - A Blizzard of Noise (Donder op Dender) Netwerk Centre for Contemporary Art. Aalst, Belgium.
Sean Dower, Steve Noble and Richard Wilson
19.03.10 - 18.04.10: RIFF-RAFF
Group Exhibition curated by David Southard. 5-8 Lower John Street. London. W1F 9AU. UK
Also by appointment: +44 (0)20 7734 5488
19.02.10 - 19.03.10: FILM / VIDEO / PERFORMANCE Wimbledon Space
Wimbledon College of Art, Merton Hall Road, London. SW19 3QA. UK
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