Void Gallery is delighted to announce Slowtime by David Beattie – the second Void Offsites commission – generously funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Slowtime addresses place, the environment, and our relationship to time through the rhythm of the tides. Beattie places community participation at the heart of the project. He invites the local community to consider the ebb and flow of the river, encouraging participants to rethink their relationship with the river and their natural environment, in turn prompting introspection and an examination of personal and collective histories. In the periods of lockdown, the river became a central point, giving people access to nature and to commune with the idea of slowing down.

Slowtime spans a period of several months throughout 2021 and consists of a number of related elements. This includes an in-conversation, a temporary sonic event to mark the high and low tides of the river in summer 2021, and a series of workshops and walking engagements that will invite the local community to listen to the river and explore their locality through sound. The intention is to create an interdisciplinary project based on the River Foyle that would propose an immeasurable gap between human behaviour and the natural world, an interconnected network of living and non-living things. The final project of this series, will be a sculptural commission by David Beattie.

David Beattie workshop 1 06.03.2021

Engaging the community is important to this project – we encourage you to take your own sound recordings of your environment, and email them to slowtimevoid@gmail.com.

We also have a dedicated lending library at the gallery where you can borrow sound recording equipment. Drop by Void, or email us at hello@derryvoid.com.

David Beattie Biography

David Beattie is a visual artist and lecturer based in Dublin, Ireland. Often assembled from a variety of everyday materials, his work attempts to provide a framework for assessing our daily surroundings and is manifested through sculpture, installation, sound and photography. Recent projects have focused on the social and environmental impact of digital technologies and machine learning.

He was awarded the Harpo Foundation Award in 2010 and was a recipient of the Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA Collection in 2016. Recent exhibitions include The Glucksman (2019); Berlin Opticians (2018+19); CCA Derry-Londonderry (2017); and Irish Museum of Modern Art (2017).

Upcoming events

Sound Walk with David Beattie and Robin Parmar

Friday 13 August, 6pm

Join artists David Beattie and Robin Parmar, for a walk along the Ramparts of the City Walls, exploring the sonic qualities of this elevated site and how this vantage point connects to the surrounding areas. The walk will take approximately 1 hour and is suitable for all ages.

There will be recording equipment available to allow you to record the sounds along our walk.

Please book your place here via Eventbrite.

From Gullet Quay to Gallows Strand – a walk with Mark Lusby

August 2021

The second walk by Mark Lusby for the Slowtime project. More information coming soon.

 

Eden Project Foyle

Saturday 28th August & Saturday 4th September, 12 midday

Join us to explore the hidden river frontages around Boom Hall and Brook Hall estates through sound, guided by Clare McGee & Barney Toal, Innovate-NI and with artist David Beattie as part of his project Slowtime.

Eden Project Foyle is an exciting & ambitious project that will link the Boom Hall and Brook Hall estates, including previously inaccessible river frontages, transforming these into a new cultural tourism, and community asset helping to drive social, economic and environmental regeneration in the city. The Eden Project and its partners believe this internationally significant union will enable this historic site to become a designed space specifically tailored to explore the potential of people in the landscape.

Spaces for these sound walks are limited. Because of this, we are asking for £2 to secure your place. Book here.

Acknowledgements

This project is kindly supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Void Gallery is supported using public funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland, Derry City and Strabane District Council, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Enkalon Foundation, Ragdoll Foundation, COVID 19 Charities Fund, Art Fund, Community Foundation NI, The Art Society, and Garfield Weston Foundation.