PRESENTATIONS
Exhibited at Towner Eastbourne, 2023, https://townereastbourne.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/olivia-louvel-the-sculptor-speaks
Installed at The Hepworth Wakefield, 2021. https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/olivia-louvel-the-sculptor-speaks/
Hepworth Research Network symposium 'Contemporary Artists and Barbara Hepworth’, 2021, https://hepworthwakefield.org/our-story/hepworth-research-network/events/our-story-hepworth-research-network-eventscontemporary-artists-and-barbara-hepworth/
Yorkshire Sound Women Network, 2021, https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/event/olivia-louvel-hepworth-resounds/
Broadcast on Radiophrenia, CCA Glasgow, 17 November 2020.
Broadcast on Resonance Extra/Resonance FM, 10 January 2020.
Nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020. https://ivorsacademy.com/nominee/the-sculptor-speaks/
SYNOPSIS
'The Sculptor Speaks' is a resounding of a 1961 tape by British sculptor Barbara Hepworth. The tape’s initial purpose was for a pre-recorded talk with slides for the British Council. Having unearthed the tape at the British Library, Olivia Louvel designed a new sound environment for it. Fascinated by the interplay of voice and sculpture, Louvel's practice is built upon a long-standing exploration of the voice, sung or spoken, and its manipulation through digital technology. She applies principles of sculpture to Hepworth’s voice to manipulate its texture, such as direct carving, exposing the material itself, often resulting in the abstract. Visually, Louvel draws from Hepworth’s singular sculptural relationship to the landscape of Cornwall. Emerging from the seascape, a geometric line is slowly drawn, completing an entire meditative cycle. Working at the intersection of creation and documentation, Louvel broadens the understanding of Barbara Hepworth’s legacy through an aural investigation of the voice.
'The Sculptor Speaks’ premiered on Resonance Extra in January 2020 and was followed by an audiovisual version presented at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2021 and at Towner in 2023.
Read O.Louvel, 'The Sculptor Speaks: resounding the archival voice of Barbara Hepworth’, Hummanity Commons, https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:34505/
PRESS
”Louvel exploits the rhythm of Hepworth's words, releasing the voice recorded from its original location in St Ives and allowing it to swim across time to a different century. The sculptor's cut-glass Received Pronunciation might be off-putting for the modern ear, but waves of technological manipulation have eroded its edges, turning it into a dreamy meditation on the nature of creativity.” ‘The Sculptor Speaks’, Deborah Nash, The Wire, [print], October 2020, issue 440, p.90. https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/89752/page/90
Aesthetica Magazine https://aestheticamagazine.com/profile/olivia-louvel/
Interview at The Hepworth Wakefield https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNFqqQz1ldo
CREDITS
Audio and visual production: Olivia Louvel.
Additional visual After Effects: Antoine Kendall.
Thank you to Sophie Bowness, trustee of the Hepworth Estate .
Thank you to Resonance Extra/Resonance FM; Digital Music and Sound Art (DMSA), University of Brighton.
The first iteration was a stereo mix for a broadcast on Resonance Extra/Resonance FM - the arts broadcast platform. This version was transmitted on the 10th of January 2020 coinciding with Dame Barbara Hepworth’s date of birth. https://x.resonance.fm/episodes/the-sculptor-speaks
‘The Sculptor Speaks’ was also broadcast on Radiophrenia - via the Contemporary Centre Glasgow on the 17th of November 2020.
‘The Sculptor Speaks’ was exhibited at The Hepworth Wakefield, 02/10/2021, 10am - 4pm.
Photo by Rob Harris. Courtesy Towner Eastbourne
https://townereastbourne.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/olivia-louvel-the-sculptor-speaks