Since 2014 I have lived in southern France, and work with sounds from the terrain around my studio exploring the fleeting connections between time and place , birdsong, plants and insect noise. My Recordings over several years have developed into a vocabulary and resource of sound, making connections about the movements, changes and losses within these places. I spend time physically making the work often using woodcut, connecting the surfaces of my material wood to the quick recordings that I make. It is this back and forth between what is fleeting and incomprehensible to our time frame that interest me as an artist. Flux and fragility are connected in ways that are often hidden.
My recordings are viewed slowed down in the ornithological programs, this enables me to see the variables and intricacies of the sounds from these places, revealing the complexity that is often missed by our hearing.
My suspended works are hand printed with water-based inks and encourage movement from the viewer to walk between or along them mirroring the movement outside. Often shown with the sounds that inspired them through a QR code. The woodblocks themselves have also been shown alongside the prints, expanding what printmaking can be through these physical surfaces . Most recently pushing print into filmic scores that are used for improvisations with musicians.
The most recent musical collaborations can be found here
I live and work in France. Trained as a painter ( B.A honours at Wimbledon school of Art and then The Slade ) graduated in 2012 with an MFA in print from UAL winning the Ardizzone Print Award, the Bambridge prize, Oaksmith Prize and the John Purcell award at Bite Mall Galleries London. Member of the London group and Graveur Maintenant and show regularly in Europe and the UK. Highlights include The Musee des Alpilles, The British Museum, Laguna Art Prize Venice , Poori Art Museum Finland, Southampton Art Gallery, Kyoto Seika University Gallery Fleur Tokyo Japan. Artist in Residence at the Bambouseraie France in 2018 and was shortlisted in 2021 for the Mario Avati print prize.
co-foundered the collective geographies of print lab with fellow artists Carol Wyss and Victoria Ahrens to explore print in its expanded form and the group exhibits in the Uk and France.
victoria.arney@gmail.com