SHELL LIKE

SHELL LIKE creates a dedicated space for sound work and focuses on the importance of listening - particularly as a group - as a vital social and political act. www.shell-like.com Led by writers Amy Lay-Pettifer and Fer Boyd, SHELL LIKE began in Spring 2017, taking the form of hour-long listening events featuring existing and newly commissioned audio works by UK-based and international artists and writers. Five listening hours were curated, each in response to a theme and experienced in the atmospheric surrounds of an exhibition or conceived environment. These took place at Guest Projects, Artsadmin and LUX Moving Image, London; Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury; and Eastside Projects, Birmingham. Since its inception, SHELL LIKE has supported new experiments in the medium, and been interested in how text can exist beyond the bounds of publication. To date SHELL LIKE has commissioned new works by Jade Montserrat, Mikatsiu and Matilda Tjäder, as well as audio renderings of existing texts by artists and writers including Leyla Pillai, Samira Saidi, Nisha Ramayya, Madeleine Stack, Penny Goring and Etel Adnan. Programmes have also aired existing works by artists such as Heather Philipson, Tai Shani, Larry Achiampong, Ain Bailey, Caroline Bergvall, Grace Schwindt, Hannah Regel and Gray Wielebinksi. Since Summer 2018, other projects exploring digital and exhibition formats include a 7-month takeover of online exhibition space in sound ilyd.nu; a year long residency in collaboration with ilyd at Raven Row, London; a re-staged listening hour in multiple sittings for Art Night 2019; a collaborative exhibition at Well Projects, Margate; and a listening party at Outer Space Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. Amy Lay-Pettifer and Fer Boyd’s collaboration is formed around a shared interest in the multifaceted nature of the voice, the affect of sound on the psyche and the guts, and a strong belief in the transformative power of collective listening. Their approach is one of rigorous research and organic organisation, as well as an intrinsic desire to generate togetherness - within communal listening sessions, and an expanding group of practitioners. SHELL LIKE activities are always based in openness, hospitality and enthusiasm, all of this bound together with the thorn and shimmer of words.