Artist Statement
With a practice that spans sound, lens-based media, text and digital systems, Christopher Steenson’s (b.1992, Northern Ireland) work bridges historical and speculative narratives to interrogate the politics of time, environment and more-than-human-relations. Through these concerns, he seeks to make work in which we can ‘listen to the future’.
Drawing upon the open methodologies of John Cage, and the idea of ‘correspondences’ proposed by anthropologist Tim Ingold, Steenson’s artworks attempt to operate as a collaborative process, unfolding as a field of potentialities between viewers and (speculative) environments. Using transmission signals, broadcasting equipment, architectural resonances and archives, Steenson’s artworks seek to locate audiences within a ‘dreamtime’ – a space in which pasts, presents and futures are negotiated on a continuum.
By conjuring fictions, folklores and alternative temporalities, Steenson’s works can be likened to networks or constellations. They are distributed and non-hierarchical; eschewing control and didactics in favour of contingency and emergence. In this sense, Steenson’s practice is a capsule for ‘quantum listening’, unfolding across multiple temporalities and perspectives – a point that is reinforced by the artist’s use of public infrastructure and bygone forms of technology, which are used to comment on present-day and future concerns. As artist and researcher Mark Peter Wright remarks: “Steenson’s artworks correspond with the mutability of sound and space, to oneself and a contingent time to come. They are invitations to listen elsewhere whilst simultaneously sounding the present.”
Recent presentations include ‘The Sky is Falling!’, Ormston House, Limerick (2024); 'mother tongue', The MAC, Belfast (2024); 'inching towards', Freelands Foundation, London (2024); ‘Penumbra’, LAVA, Mexico City (2024); 'Breath Variations’, Flat Time House, London (2023); 'Soft Rains Will Come', VISUAL Carlow (2022); TULCA Festival of Visual Arts: The World Was All Before Them (2022). In 2020, Steenson presented ‘On Chorus’ a national public sound artwork utilising Ireland’s network of train station PA systems. His work is held in the Arts Council of Ireland Collection.
Biography
Following time as a researcher and PhD canditate in psychology and movement science, Christopher Steenson began his artistic practice in 2017, with his work manifesting as several site-specific sound works, installations and performances. His work has been presented by Freelands Foundation, London (2024); LAVA, Mexico City (2024); Flat Time House, London, United Kingdom (2023); VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art (2022), curated by Emma Lucy O’Brien and Benjamin Stafford; TULCA Festival of Visual Arts: The World Was All Before Them (2022), curated by Clare Gormley; Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin, Ireland (2022); Project DivFuse, London, United Kingdom (2022); Sonorities sound biennale (2022); CCA Derry~Londonderry (2021), curated by Locky Morris and Catherine Hemelryk; CCA Glasgow’s Radiophrenia (2020); The Old Jesuit Monastery, Syros, Greece (2019); NCAD Gallery, Dublin (2019); and EastSide Arts Festival, Belfast (2017).
Steenson has participated on several residencies including: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, USA (2023); Flat Time House, London, United Kingdom (2023); Interface, Connemara, Ireland (2022); Cow House Studios, Wexford, Ireland (2022); Sounding Paths, Syros, Greece (2019). He was part of the fourth and final cohort participating in the PS² Freelands Artist Programme (2022–2023). His work has also been covered by various publications and media outlets including Paper Visual Art, The Quietus, Irish Times, RTÉ News, RTÉ Radio 1, The Irish Examiner, Dublin Inquirer and BBC Radio Ulster. He has received funding from the Arts Council of Ireland (2019–2023), the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2019, 2020 & 2022); Kerry Arts Office (2020 & 2024) and the ESB Brighter Future Fund (2022–2023). Steenson’s work is held in the Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Art Collection.
One of Steenson’s most recent projects, On Chorus, is a large-scale public sound artwork, in collaboration with Iarnród Éireann/Irish Rail, BirdWatch Ireland and Fallow Media. This artwork generated significant media attention and acclaim within Ireland and beyond. In April 2021, the artwork won a Business to Arts Award and now exists as an artist LP. Another recent artwork, Soft Rains Will Come was exhibited at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art. This work has been discussed by writers such as David Toop and Ian Maleney and a publication for the artwork, designed by Or Studio, was released in May 2022.
From November 2022 – September 2023 Steenson worked with the Nerve Centre to create a new site-specific sound artwork for the Derry city walls, titled Almanac for a Walled City. Taking the form of a geolocated soundwalk, the work explores our historical relationship with the weather, and how this will change, by working with intergenerational groups in the city. The artwork was launched in September 2023. In Summer 2022, Steenson began a collaborative research project with Ormston House, that connected artists and field experts (i.e. conservationists, community activists, and farmers) to learn about the corncrake and its place in Ireland’s cultural heritage. This research will culminate with a series of artworks, collectively titled The Long Grass, presented at Ormston House in September 2024.