We’re delighted to be partnering with Leeds Art Gallery to commission a new, community-driven artwork by electronic musician Leafcutter John. For the piece, Leafcutter John is using crowed sourced field recordings of people’s favourite outdoor spaces.
To raise awareness around the accessibility of greenspaces, and to celebrate the respite from lockdown people have found in nature, Leafcutter John will be creating a new sound piece entitled Lockdown Patchwork. The piece is a response to Leeds Art Gallery’s Natural Encounters exhibition, which ‘explores how artists have responded to nature’. Leafcutter John’s piece emerges from the solidarity of lockdown living, and will utilise material from the public: crowd-sourced videos, field recordings and interviews will be included in the piece, sharing personal experiences of nature and reflecting on how people have found solace in green spaces during the pandemic.
A piece celebrating our communal relationship with nature, Lockdown Patchwork also encourages people to get in touch with the sounds of their local environments, and to try out field recording for the first time. Contributors might not have thought of themselves as sound artists at the beginning of the process, but by using their phones, portable recorders and other tools, they’ve become a creative part of Leafcutter John’s sonic collage.
Stay tuned for more info on Lockdown Patchwork in 2021.
Photo: Leafcutter John © Katherine Mager