Sound Orbits: Live Performance

Join artists Richard Francis, Rachel Shearer, and Clinton Watkins for this suite of live sound performances at Lopdell House Theatre on the occasion of the exhibition MILKSTARS: Sound constellations in the Chartwell Collection.

This exhibition draws on sound-oriented works in the Chartwell Collection to map relationships between artists across time and space. The exhibition ‘radiates’ from a central dialogue between John Nixon and Julian Dashper. Like the artists in the exhibition, Francis, Shearer, and Watkins represent a sub-network within the art community, connected via their shared performance of sound.

Richard Francis

Richard Francis is a sound artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau working with found sound, feedback, electrical systems and auditory functioning. He has released solo and collaborative albums on Senufo Editions (Italy), Entr’acte (Belgium), Glistening Examples (USA), Korm Plastics (Netherlands), and Aufabwegen (Germany). Recent collaborators include Frans De Waard, Ralf Wehowsky, Anla Courtis, Bruce Russell, Mattin, Jason Kahn and Francisco Lopez. His works have been performed, presented or exhibited at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Issue Project Room, New York; Uplink, Tokyo; Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe; Werkstatt fur Improvisierte Musik, Zurich; Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; IMA, Brisbane; Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland; The Toff, Melbourne; St Paul St, Auckland; Tuned City, Berlin; Alt Music Festival, Auckland; De Affair, Nijmegen; Osage Soho, Hong Kong; Te Tuhi, Auckland; Cave 12, Geneva; Auckland Museum; Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin; Ramp Gallery, Hamilton; The Physics Room, Christchurch; Artspace, Auckland; Lines of Flight, Dunedin; Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Radio New Zealand National.

Clinton Watkins

Clinton Watkins investigates affect through the construction of combined immersive experiences of sound, colour and scale. His work focuses on the characteristics, structures, phenomena, and processing of sonic and visual material. Installations incorporate found and custom-made audio and video hardware to create repetition, distortion, duration and form, distilled via a minimalist sensibility. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States. He is represented by Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland. Watkins is also a practicing experimental musician who regularly produces and performs as a solo artist and collaboratively. He holds a Doctoral Degree from Elam School of Fine Arts Auckland and is an Associate Professor at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand specializing in sound and installation practice. 

Rachel Shearer

Tāmaki based Rachel Shearer has been performing and releasing recordings of her experimental music/soundscapes for multiple decades. She draws on a divergent set of sound practices, including site/spatial specific and culturally informed approaches, layering processed field recordings with instrumentation, voice and live production to create immersive shifting textures

14 September, 2-4pm