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James Webb

Prayer | 2018

South Africa

|

Multimedia

“Prayer (Chicago)” is a multi-channel sound installation comprising 240 recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions found in Chicago, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker transmits its own separate selection of prayers, arranged consecutively and looped, so that when all speakers play at the same time an ever ever-changing sound environment is experienced.

The project was first exhibited in Cape Town in 2000, and is created in situ every time, with the prayers collected from all the different religious groups operating in the host city. These have included, but are not limited to, most denominations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, as well as new religious movements and traditional, pre-Christian faiths.

Selected recordings can be heard at https://m.soundcloud.com/theotherjameswebb/sets/prayer

“Prayer (Chicago)” is the 10th city-specific iteration of the artwork, and its first time in North America. It was created in the summer of 2018, and produced by Allie Beck and Brontë Mansfield, and supported by the SAIC and Artworkers Retirement Society. Thank you to Matthew S. Witkovsky, the Witkowsky family, James Rondeau, all at the AIC, Becca Schlossberg, Anna Ploegman, Jim Iska, Mark McCain, Allie Beck, Brontë Mansfield, and Lina Kinning.

Courtesy the artist, The Art Institute Of Chicago, blank projects, and Galerie Imane Farès. Photography by Art Institute of Chicago and Jordan Fuller. 

Gallery image: Prayer (Chicago) | 2018 | curated by Matthew S. Witkovsky for the exhibition Art Institute of Chicago
Prayer (Chicago) | 2018 | curated by Matthew S. Witkovsky for the exhibition Art Institute of Chicago
Gallery image: James Webb, Prayer (Stockholm), 2016, curated by Helene Pousette Larson for History Unfolds at Historiska. Opening 18th November 2016, closing 19th November 2017. http://historiska.se/history-unfolds-en/
James Webb, Prayer (Stockholm), 2016, curated by Helene Pousette Larson for History Unfolds at Historiska. Opening 18th November 2016, closing 19th November 2017. http://historiska.se/history-unfolds-en/
Gallery image: James Webb, “Prayer (Malmö),” 2015. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Malmö, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker transmits its own separate selection of prayers, arranged consecutively and looped, so that when all speakers play at the same time an ever ever-changing sound environment is experienced. The audience may wander freely through the installation, listening to the polyphony of voices from all the speakers at once, or alternatively, kneel down to listen to individual prayers broadcast from any particular speaker.
James Webb, “Prayer (Malmö),” 2015. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Malmö, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers. Each speaker transmits its own separate selection of prayers, arranged consecutively and looped, so that when all speakers play at the same time an ever ever-changing sound environment is experienced. The audience may wander freely through the installation, listening to the polyphony of voices from all the speakers at once, or alternatively, kneel down to listen to individual prayers broadcast from any particular speaker.
Gallery image: James Webb, “Prayer (Johannesburg),” 2012. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Johannesburg, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers.
James Webb, “Prayer (Johannesburg),” 2012. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Johannesburg, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers.
Gallery image: James Webb, “Prayer (Nottingham),” 2010. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Nottingham, England, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers.
James Webb, “Prayer (Nottingham),” 2010. A multi-channel sound installation comprising recordings of prayer and vocal worship from religions in Nottingham, England, broadcast simultaneously from 12 floor-based speakers.

biography

Gallery image

James Webb

Born in 1975, Kimberley, South Africa
Lives and works in UK

James Webb is an artst, known for his site-specific interventions. His Practice often involves sound, found objects, and text, invoking references to literature, cinema and the minimalist traditions. By shifting objects, techniques, and forms beyond their original contexts and introducing them to different enviroments, Webb creates new spaces of tension. These spaces bind Webb's academic background in religion. theatre, and advertising, offering poetic inquiries into the economics of belief and dynamics of communication in our contmporary world.

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Artist's galleries

James Webb: Threnody | 2016

Gallery image: Threnody | 2016 | The isolated vocal track of Helter Skelter (The Beatles, 1968) was reversed and given to the vocalist Zami Mdingi to sing as such, and broadcast from a circular, hyper-directional speaker visually echoing Kazimir Malevich’s Black Circle (1915) |This artwork was first exhibited on the artist’s solo exhibition, “Ecstatic Interference,” at blank projects, Cape Town, 28 January - 5 March 2016 | Photograph by Kyle Morland.

James Webb: This is where I leave you and other works | 2020

Gallery image: This is where I leave you | 2020 | A mid-20th century, ornamental, porcelain statue of Ānanda is encased in a vitrine made of fluted glass.
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