Telephone

Measure press release - 02 / 09 /14
Telephone
19 September 2014 - 3 May 2015
Wooden K2 Telephone Kiosk, Burlington House entranceway, Piccadilly W1J 0BD
Launch event: 19 September 11- 4pm, Victoria and Albert Museum organised as part of London Design Festival 2014
How does the street telephone kiosk alter our experience of listening in the city? Four artists create new sound works for a
unique 1920s red telephone kiosk on Piccadilly
The first red telephone kiosk designed in 1924 by renowned architect Giles Gilbert Scott is the site for four new sound
works commissioned by Measure, a non-profit arts organisation. The historic structure installed under the entranceway
to Burlington House, Piccadilly was the only wooden prototype made of this iconic design.
Marking the 90th anniversary, Measure will present a programme of sonic compositions by UK-based artists to be
listened to through the telephone handset. Presented consecutively, artists Holly Pester, Aura Satz, Dan Scott and
Lawrence Abu Hamdan will each probe the cultural role of the public telephone, its technological design and its
relevance as a site for solitary conversation within a bustling central London setting.
Drawing upon her recent residency at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths, poet and writer Holly Pester will play with
the gendered history of gossip whilst sound and film artist Aura Satz approaches the electronic dial tone as an open field
of creative potential, in conversation with computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. Referencing Thomas Edison’s spirit
phone, Dan Scott focusses on the relationship between the telephone and other worlds, including the afterlife,
and Lawrence Abu Hamdan continues his research into the role of the voice in law by revealing the act of listening as
a form of witnessing.
Derived from the Greek words tēle and phōnē which translate as Far Voice, the telephone was invented to carry voices
across long distances, collapsing time and space by doing so. A national system of telephone networks in the early
twentieth century enabled this new technology to spread throughout the streets, revolutionising our ability to
communicate with each other. Once regarded as a pinnacle of technological innovation, the telephone kiosk is now on
the verge of obsolescence as our instinct to communicate continues to shape and shift new mobile technologies today.
‘Telephone’ will feature an accompanying public programme of talks and performances. A project launch event will take
place on Friday 19 September at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the London Design Festival (13 - 21
September 2014). The day will focus on the design history of the public kiosk and will include a talk by historian David
Heathcote, viewings of Scott’s kiosk design drawings from RIBA Archives, a drop-in workshop with illustrator Sebastian
Harding and a performance by the first commissioned artist, Holly Pester.
Telephone is co-curated by Measure and Poppy Bowers.
Visitor Information:
Opening times: Saturday – Thursday: 10am – 6pm, Friday: 10am – 10pm, admission free
Nearest London Underground Station: Green Park or Piccadilly
For further press information please contact:
Simon Day on 07841 756067 or email [email protected]
www.measure.org.uk
Measure press release - 02 / 09 /14
Notes to Editors
Measure was founded in 2000 by Simon Day and Jon Scott as a non-profit art organisation that aims to inspire a passion for art,
architecture and history. Through our collaborative commissions sited within unconventional spaces, artists are encouraged to
challenge their own practice and evolve new ways of working. Over the last 14 years Measure has enabled the public to explore
many lost buildings, some for the first time, such as The Isokon Building, The Kingsway Tram Subway, Aldwych Tube Station and The
Farmiloe Building. With artists as exceptional as Des Hughes, Emily Richardson, Conrad Shawcross, Verity-Jane Keefe and Ben Rivers
creating artworks that are inspired by and share a connection with the space that hosts them, the exhibitions are often
transformative experiences for our audience.
Poppy Bowers is a curator based in London. She is Assistant Curator at Whitechapel Gallery where she has worked with artists
including Giuseppe Penone, Sarah Lucas and Richard Tuttle. In May 2014 she assisted Iwona Blazwick on a major group exhibition
held at The Gennadius Library, Athens. The exhibition, ‘A Thousand Doors’, was a collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery
and Greece-based foundation NEON. Previously she was Exhibitions Coordinator at Wellcome Collection, London.
Telephone consists of the following programme of sound works: Holly Pester 19 September – 14 November 2014; Aura Satz 15
November 2014 – 9 January 2015; Dan Scott 10 January – 6 March 2015; Lawrence Abu Hamdan 7 March – 3 May 2015.
Holly Pester (b.1982 Colchester) is a sound poet and multidisciplinary writer whose AHRC-funded doctoral research examined the
poetics of noise, focusing on the effects of broadcast and transmission media on the voice. She experiments with her own voice in
various forms of texts including an investigation into the history and practice of sea shanties, radio transmissions and humour.
Her interest in the noise and the sound of speech has led to her performing internationally including events at Festival Expandible,
Mexico City; dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel; Whitechapel Gallery, London and the Serpentine Galleries, London. Her forthcoming
publications include, ‘Folkslop’, a poetry collection due out with Veer Books late 2014, and a collection of experimental prose with
Book Works, 2015.
Aura Satz (b.1974 Barcelona) works in film, sound, performance and sculpture. She is particularly interested in the history of
audio and visual technologies, either at the point of invention or on the brink of obsolescence. Various projects have
focussed on the role played by women in the history of technology, such as the Hollywood actress and mathematician
Hedy Lamarr and Natalie Kamus, a colour consultant on major colour films during 1930s and 1940s. Satz has performed,
exhibited and screened widely including the Rotterdam Film Festival; the New York Film Festival; Färgfabriken, Stockholm;
Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea di Trento, Italy; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; FACT, Liverpool; BFI Southbank, London;
Tate Modern, London; Hayward Project Space, London; Whitechapel Gallery, London and the Wellcome Collection, London.
Aura Satz is tutor of Moving Image at RCA, London.
Dan Scott (b. 1978 London) incorporates installation, performance, sound and text and investigates the politics and poetics of sound
and listening. Dan is currently engaged in a practice-based PhD at the University of the Arts, London on the subject of ways of
listening within sound art, and is a lecturer in sound and scenography at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Dan has
carried out projects and performed internationally including recent work at Tate Modern, London; Cafe Oto, London; De La Warr
Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea; Harewood House, Yorkshire; Binaural, Sao Pedro Do Sul.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b.1985 Gharifé) frequently deals with the relationship between listening and borders, human rights,
testimony, truth and law, through the production of audio-visual installations, graphic design, sculpture, photography, workshops and
performance. Recent solo exhibitions include Showroom, London; Casco, Utrecht and Beirut in Cairo, Cairo. He has participated
in group exhibitions at Tate Modern London; M HKA Antwerp; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; the Beirut Art Center and The 2012
Taipei Biennial. Abu Hamdan is part of the team Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths College London where he is a PhD candidate
and lecturer.
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott PRIBA, OM, RA, RGM (b. 1880 London, d. 1960 London) was an influential architect who designed
numerous public buildings. Known for fusing traditional styles with modern functionality, he was primarily a church builder; his greatest
individual commission being the design of a new Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. In 1924 he was invited by The Royal Fine Art
Commission to submit a design for a public telephone kiosk as part of a competition. His winning classical structure, known as the
‘K2’ was installed throughout London from 1926. Among his many secular works that followed were the new Bodleian Library,
Oxford; Waterloo Bridge and Battersea Power Station, London.
Measure press release - 02 / 09 /14
All images on this page are avaliable in 300dpi for press use.
Please contact Measure for hi-res files - [email protected]
Image list
Kiosk number 2 prototype model, 1924
Kiosk number 2 perspective wash drawing of interior, 1930
© Courtesy of BT Heritage & Archives
K2 wooden prototype telephone kiosk, Burlington House, Piccadilly. The
venue for ‘Telephone’, a programme of sound works commissioned by
Measure, 2014-15. Image credit: Measure
Holly Pester
© Holly Pester
Aura Satz
Spiral Sound Coil - in the studio, 2010. credit: Paul Winch-Furness
© Aura Satz 2014
Dan Scott
© Dan Scott
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Aural Contract Audio Archive ( voice activated version) 2012
Installation view from Aural Contract: The Whole Truth Casco Utrecht
2012
credit: Emilio Moreno
© Courtesy of the Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Galeri Non, Istanbul