Christopher Steenson
Christopher Steenson (b.1992) is a Northern Irish artist based between the north and south of Ireland. With a background in psychology and the sonic environment, his work uses sound, video, analogue photography, writing and digital media to forge ways of ‘listening to the future’.
Recent and upcoming presentations include: Almanac for a Walled City for the Derry city walls, Ireland (2023); Breath Variations at Flat Time House, London, UK (2023); the site-specific sound work Let it run all over me for Lagan Weir, Belfast, UK (2023); Periodical Review 12: Practical Magic at Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin, Ireland (2022); TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2022: The World Was All Before Them, curated by Clare Gormley; Soft Rains Will Come at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Ireland (2022), curated by Emma Lucy O’Brien and Benjamin Stafford; Translations at Project DivFuse, London, UK (2022), Connemara Landscape for Sonorities sound biennale, Belfast, UK (2022); the group exhibition Urgencies at CCA Derry~Londonderry, UK (2021), curated by Locky Morris and Catherine Hemelryk; and the national public sound artwork On Chorus (2020).
In March 2022, Steenson was artist-in-residence at Interface, Connemara, Galway, Ireland. In July 2019, he participated in Sounding Paths, an international residency for site-specific sound and intermedia projects in Syros, Greece. His work has also been covered by various publications and media outlets including Paper Visual Art, Irish Times, RTÉ News, RTÉ Radio 1, The Irish Examiner, Dublin Inquirer, The Quietus and BBC Radio Ulster. He has received funding from the Arts Council of Ireland (2019–2022), the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2019, 2020 & 2022); Kerry Arts Office (2020) and the ESB Brighter Future Fund (2022–2023). His artwork Soft Rains Will Come (2022) is held in the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Art Collection. Steenson is currently part of the fourth and final cohort participating in the PS² Freelands Foundation Artist Programme (2022–2023).
untitled (thesamethesamethesame), 2023, HD video (transferred to SD), broadcast monitor, 6-channel surround sound. Installation View, Flat Time House, London (12–14 May 2023). Photograph by Ariana Martin, courtesy the artist.
Soft Rains Will Come, 2022, indeterminate sound artwork for twelve Cold War-era radios placed on stilts (to protect against eventual submersion). Infinite duration (or until the electricity stops). Bespoke algorithmic audio system, live shortwave radio signals, field recordings, voiceover and collected shortwave radio recordings. Broadcast via radio transmitters. Dimensions variable. Edition of 1 + 1 AP. Installation view, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland (26 February – 22 May 2022). Photograph by Ros Kavanagh, courtesy of the artist and the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Art Collection.
Let it run all over me, 2023, 4-channel site-specific sound work with horse skull, theatre lighting, field recordings and resonances. Installation view, Lagan Weir Underwater Tunnel, 25 March 2023. Photograph by Simon Mills, courtesy the artist.
I never thought something like that could happen here, 2022, hand-printed c-type print on archival photo paper, edition of 1 + 1 AP, 30.5 x 40.6 cm.
Department of Dreamtime, 2022–2023, Freephone number, intermittent sound broadcast, video, window tint and advertising signage. Installation detail, CCA Derry~Londonderry Project Space, 8 November – 3 December 2022. Photograph by Paola Bernardelli, courtesy the artist.
The Artist-in-Residence Program is sponsored, in part, by:
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