fbpx
August 6, 2021

Introducing ‘Tidal Volume’ International Residency

Reaching across geographies, histories and time zones, Tidal Volume is a unique digital residency exploring sound.
Tidal Volume: A Sound-Based Digital Residency

Launching in September, Tidal Volume will see two select artists from Vancouver, work in conversation with two Melbourne-based artists to experiment with sound, song, language, spoken word and text to connect across distance.

Presented by The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency and grunt gallery in Vancouver in collaboration with Footscray Community Arts, resident artists include: Salia Joseph (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & Snuneymuxw, CA), Orene Askew (Squamish, CA), Jarra Steel (Boonwurrung & Wemba Wemba, AU) and Maya Hodge (Lardil & Yangkaal, AU).

Produced in the context of the pandemic, Tidal Volume asks us to consider what presence means when we can’t be in physical spaces together. How might we communicate—and listen—differently? 

Located as we both are on waterways and coastlines, the water sets the basis for our exploration: both river and ocean represent rich history, complex currents, exchange and deep knowledge. It is also a contentious place, a defining factor in increasingly urgent discussions around nationhood, access, jurisdictional boundaries and climate change.

As we seek to revisit , explore and nurture histories of the foreshore, we also seek to provide a space and a support network for artists to interrogate and expand our understanding of the land and waters around us. 

Through the four-week residency program, the two artist-teams will be invited to exchange ‘call and response’ style sound works, alongside an exchange of knowledge and ideas across distance. Following protocols and community guidelines, we will work with the artists to define public engagement with their process and sound pieces as the residency progresses. 

Taking water, and the many ways it connects us, as inspiration for the notion of exchange, Tidal Volume extends a conversation that began in 2019 with a residency in Vancouver with Australian Gunditjmara artist, language keeper and culture bearer Vicki Couzens, who also sits on our Indigenous Advisory Group.

Between our two locales, we hope to generate an ongoing dialogue that supports Indigenous artists to build and sustain international conversations and networks; we view this residency as a next iteration of an ongoing conversation between and amongst our communities, artists and regions. 

Check our social media for updates and information about each artist and for an introduction to the organisations and host nations of our respective regions. The program will also feature an artist discussion and listening event following the completion of the residency, in November.

Funded by the generous support of the Australia Council for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts and supported by Victoria University.