Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies
2025
Locust Projects, Miami, FL
Arsimmer McCoy, Selina Nwulu, Michael Webster
Locust Projects presents Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies, a transatlantic conversation of whispered resistance and ecological anxiety, framed through a reimagined sonic architecture in the Project Room. Conceived by artist Michael Webster in collaboration with writers Arsimmer McCoy and Selina Nwulu, the exhibition adopts the early 20th-century technology of sound mirrors, once engineered to detect the threat of incoming war planes, as vessels for spoken voice.
The installation stages a listening encounter between continents, between silence and resonance, and between breath and the urgency of speech. Originally constructed along the English coastline as part of an acoustic early warning system to register aircraft crossing the Channel, the now-obsolete sound mirror is reversed in this context to transmit, rather than receive, the voices of writers in dialogue. These parabolic structures are designed to concentrate faint acoustic signals to a single, audible, focal point. Pairs of mirrors, fabricated by Webster, are positioned throughout the space to create discrete listening zones, where signal is condensed, and speech becomes legible. In this redeployed architectural space, listening is no longer passive; it becomes an intentional act of spatial positioning.
The voices of McCoy and Nwulu are projected as fragmented, overlapping transmissions. Their words carry the weight of coded warnings and quiet solidarity, marked by tenderness, a reaching across distance. What emerges is a layered field of frequencies moving through the installation like tides, returning in loops and fragments. Sound and language wash over the space in varying intensities. In this environment, listening is strained and complicated - it is a generous and deeply embodied act.
Featuring a live performance by Arsimmer McCoy, with spoken voice recordings by Selina Nwulu, sound by Dani Amaro, and video by Carrington Ware.
Special thanks to those who assisted with the fabrication of the project: Tom Mickelson, Maggie Genoble, Brendan Alvis, Alleah Craig, Donald Medley, Grae Saar, and Oscar Soto.
Locust Projects, Miami, FL
Arsimmer McCoy, Selina Nwulu, Michael Webster
Locust Projects presents Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies, a transatlantic conversation of whispered resistance and ecological anxiety, framed through a reimagined sonic architecture in the Project Room. Conceived by artist Michael Webster in collaboration with writers Arsimmer McCoy and Selina Nwulu, the exhibition adopts the early 20th-century technology of sound mirrors, once engineered to detect the threat of incoming war planes, as vessels for spoken voice.
The installation stages a listening encounter between continents, between silence and resonance, and between breath and the urgency of speech. Originally constructed along the English coastline as part of an acoustic early warning system to register aircraft crossing the Channel, the now-obsolete sound mirror is reversed in this context to transmit, rather than receive, the voices of writers in dialogue. These parabolic structures are designed to concentrate faint acoustic signals to a single, audible, focal point. Pairs of mirrors, fabricated by Webster, are positioned throughout the space to create discrete listening zones, where signal is condensed, and speech becomes legible. In this redeployed architectural space, listening is no longer passive; it becomes an intentional act of spatial positioning.
The voices of McCoy and Nwulu are projected as fragmented, overlapping transmissions. Their words carry the weight of coded warnings and quiet solidarity, marked by tenderness, a reaching across distance. What emerges is a layered field of frequencies moving through the installation like tides, returning in loops and fragments. Sound and language wash over the space in varying intensities. In this environment, listening is strained and complicated - it is a generous and deeply embodied act.
Featuring a live performance by Arsimmer McCoy, with spoken voice recordings by Selina Nwulu, sound by Dani Amaro, and video by Carrington Ware.
Special thanks to those who assisted with the fabrication of the project: Tom Mickelson, Maggie Genoble, Brendan Alvis, Alleah Craig, Donald Medley, Grae Saar, and Oscar Soto.
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