Lissa Gbassa Variations

Claire Nichols is a London-based multidisciplinary artist creating live performances where installation, movement and sound collide and work in relation to each other in an improvised manner. Recently she has been especially focused on sound, using a contact microphone, a hydrophone and a geophone to record environmental vibrations unheard by the human ear. This way Claire lets materials speak on their own terms, revealing their agency.

In Benin, Claire has felt the need to honour and recognise local ocean, river and land-based traditional practices and livelihoods, such as fishing, salt distillation, and earth and bamboo construction. Instead of staying in a studio, Claire has taken her microphones out into the field, recording elemental processes involving fire, water and earth. These recordings serve as materials for improvised live performances conducted in collaboration with dancers.

In Claire’s experience, listening to the environment allows for becoming more in tune with what is around you. There is a difference between hearing and listening: whereas hearing is automatic and something that arises from the circumstances, listening is a conscious practice, opening up to the field of sound. Drawing on Pauline Oliveros' ideas around Quantum Listening, Claire suggests that it is possible to go even further and to be aware of how you are listening, to listen to the act of listening itself.

Villa Karo, Benin (2024)

• http://clairenichols.info