SPACE Ilford 
Gallery open Wed 11am – 5pm, Sat 11am – 3pm

“We walked in Ilford with people who were local and not so local. We tried to listen and to see. We attempted to create songs together. Later, we gathered to impersonate animals and different living beings. The soundscape of an imagined nature.” – Lina Lapelytė

Step into a forest of sound with an immersive installation by the award-winning artist Lina Lapelytė, premiering at SPACE Ilford this summer. A multitude of speakers hang from the gallery’s domed ceiling, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in a soundscape that explores the broken relationships between human beings and the natural world around us. These relationships are translated as homophonic interpretations of nature’s echoes crafted by the human voice. 

The installation responds to interactions with the local area and community during Lina’s six-month residency at SPACE. Created in collaboration with local participants, the workshops and voice recordings explore the sensory enrichment of an imagined nature. The work meditates on the romanticised idea of the non-human world around us as well as our ambivalent relationship with it.

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Lina Lapelytė’s (b.1984, works in Vilnius and London) performance-based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes and nostalgia. Her work engages trained and untrained performers often in an act of singing which takes the form of a collective and affective event, questioning vulnerability and silence.

Her previous works have been exhibited at 13th Kaunas Biennale; Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels; Tai Kwun, HK; Riga Biennial – RIBOCA2; and 58th Venice Biennale, amongst others.

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Here Hear Hare Hair, commissioned and produced by Premlata Mistry, Head of Community Engagement Programmes, SPACE.

Architecture by Mantas Petraitis (Implant Architecture)

Voices by Andrew Brown, Ann-Marie LeQuesne, Caroline Wendling, Daniel Picone, Forhad Rahman, Jane Perrott, Krishen Kanadia, Lieve Carchon, Robert Cervera, Susannah Modeste.

Created as part of Who Cares, a platform to share experiences, enabling meaningful interactions and collective imagination, focusing on care of each other and our neighbours. Supported by Creative Europe.

With thanks to Lithuanian Culture Institute, Riddim Life, Biennale Gherdëina, Baltic Art Center and Neringa Forest Architecture.