Lawrence Abu Hamdan Livres

The ninety-six objects in this inventory are sourced from earwitness interviews Lawrence Abu Hamdan conducted as well as from trial transcripts across the globe. After SFX explores the ways we remember sound and the ways in which cinematic sound effects have created a collective acoustic unconscious. What is revealed is our difficulty in describing these memories when precision is vital. The objects listed here stand in for a missing sonic vocabulary, a language we do not yet speak.00Exhibition: Secession, Vienna, Austria (08.12.2020-07.02.2021).

In both art and research, Beirut- and London-based artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b. 1985) explores the perception of language and sound. His latest project, A Politics of Listening, is an intervention into and reorganization of the forms listening takes. His latest artist book provides a glimpse into an elaborate and productive career that began with Hamdans interest in DIY music and includes audiovisual installations, performances, graphic works, photography, Islamic sermons, cassette tape compositions, essays and lectures. The slender publication, accompanying two recent shows, features transcriptions of sermons, monologues, testimonies and interviews made over the last five years engaging questions of national identity, human rights and the administration of justice. Hamdans audio-aesthetic practice includes sonic forensics for legal investigations and advocacy. Hamdan is a current fellow at Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the New School, NY, and his work is collected by MoMA, NY, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE, among others. Essays by Omar Kholeif and Fabian Schoneich.