Receiver

Artists: Appau Jr Boayke-Yiadom, Frazer Merrick, Joe Namy, Nastassja Simensky

‘Receiver’ brings together four artists who consider sound in relation to innovative technologies, and our understanding of place. It explores Essex’s historic and current relationship with broadcasting pioneering audio technologies, the movement of people and cultures, and the unique soundscapes of its coastline and estuaries. This group exhibition recognises the increasingly vibrant developments within contemporary art practice that uses experimental sound and broadcast, as well as highlighting the renewed importance of these mediums to connect communities in the digital age.

This project builds upon FPG Sounds, an ongoing online programme begun in Autumn 2021 to support the development of original audio works by practitioners based in South Essex. Together these acknowledge Southend’s long and rich history of innovators working across sound and broadcast, from the development of EKCO radio to its alternative music scene. In conjunction with this exhibition, Southend’s Central Museum will celebrate the centenary of EKCO Radio with a collection display opening 24th November 2022 of their original radio and television cabinets, some of which were commissioned from famous architects such as Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates.

For ‘Receiver’, new commissions by the artists respond to key themes: