Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Sonic Image

Tracing the contours of immaterial forms of colonisation, Abu Hamdan has created a distinctive practice of visual expression. In The Sonic Image, he presents various studies of splintered aural leaks—mapping out an aesthetic atlas for how we see sound. Through detailed examination and experimentation, Abu Hamdan moves towards a new form of image-making—a picture that fluctuates between the ear and the eye, and behaves akin to sound itself.

The Sonic Image features three major new bodies of work; a large-scale installation commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, as well as a new site-specific performance. Together, this constellation of artworks investigates the boundaries between voice and speech; translation and testimony; representation and reincarnation; and explore the power of sound and image to operate as mutual progenitors, of and in, public testimony. Tracing the contours of immaterial forms of colonisation, Abu Hamdan has created a distinctive practice of visual expression. In The Sonic Image, he presents various studies of splintered aural leaks—mapping out an aesthetic atlas for how we see sound. Through detailed examination and experimentation, Abu Hamdan moves towards a new form of image-making—a picture that fluctuates between the ear and the eye, and behaves akin to sound itself.

The Sonic Image features three major new bodies of work; a large-scale installation commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, as well as a new site-specific performance. Together, this constellation of artworks investigates the boundaries between voice and speech; translation and testimony; representation and reincarnation; and explore the power of sound and image to operate as mutual progenitors, of and in, public testimony.

The Sonic Image is curated by Omar Kholeif, the Foundation’s Director of Collections and Senior Curator and is in Galleries 4, 5 and 6, Al Mureijah Square.