The Substation/
Menu/
Apr/
Currently open

The Substation/ Artist/​Gail Priest/

Gail Priest / Photography by Samuel James

Gail Priest has a multidisciplinary practice that focuses on the aural realm. Working across installation, composition, recording and performance she aims to create experiences in which the participant’s perceptual and cognitive processes are subtly re-organised. She has performed live electro-acoustic compositions and exhibited sound-based installations nationally and internationally including in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Norway and the Netherlands. She also curates events and exhibitions and writes fictively and factually about sound and media art.

Related/

Substation Program/
Talk/
Exhibition/
Free/
Music
Artist Talk: Five Self-Vibrating Regions of Intensities
15 April 2023
Info Expand

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION

Join Gail Priest and Thomas Burless from the Institute for Non-Empirical Results, for an in-depth discussion of their conceptual obsessions, creative processes and the historical research that has resulted in the installations of Five Self-Vibrating Regions of Intensities. This will include demonstrations of several of the prototype objects that led to the final installations.

Substation Program/
Installation/
Exhibition
Five Self-Vibrating Regions of Intensities
14 April–20 May 2023
Info Expand

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND PERFORMANCE SPACE

The world premiere of Five Self-Vibrating Regions of Intensities is a study of sound as energy. Across five installations Gail Priest and Thomas Burless explore the transmission of sonic energy through materials and its visual manifestations as wave-driven geometric patterns (cymatics).

The exhibition is multimodal, in that each room houses the results of a particular experiment, yet together the five installations present an overall composition of audiovisual oscillations.

Two installations incorporate large-scale video to illustrate micro detail: the shimmer of a rainbow spectrum on a soap bubble in Membrane and the silvery-shake of sugar granules in Tridophone. In Pond Life Gail and Thomas recreate a marshy, urban ecosystem that ripples and rumbles with sonic energy. In a newly created piece, Calling Wire, they use the parlour trick of a tin-can telephone to explore the phenomenon of sound wave transmission though long wires. Weaving everything together is the spatialised poetic essay Vibrant Matters: presented as an assemblage of trembling introductory texts.

Through these experiments Gail and Thomas attempt to draw attention to the quivering oscillations, both large and small, that evidence the elemental energy shared by all matter.


PRODUCTION CREDITS

Co-creator: Gail Priest
Co-creator: Thomas Burless
Project Assistant: Rose Hartshorne


CONTENT WARNINGS

Please be aware this installation exhibition has low lighting.


ACCESS

This exhibition is wheelchair accessible and gender neutral accessible toilets are available.

Download the wall labels (descriptions of the works).

Download text from the work Vibrant Matters.

Listen to the audio of the work Calling Wire.


ARTIST TALK

Saturday 15 April, 2pm. Free admission, booking essential

Join Gail Priest and Thomas Burless from the Institute for Non-Empirical Results, for an in-depth discussion of their conceptual obsessions, creative processes and the historical research that has resulted in the installations of Five Self-Vibrating Regions of Intensities. This will include demonstrations of several of the prototype objects that led to the final installations.

Sign up to our
newsletter 
The Substation

1 Market Street, Newport,
Victoria 3015, Australia

Currently open
Wed–Sat 11am–5pm

Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 11-5pm (03) 9391 1110
info@thesubstation.org.au

We acknowledge and recognise the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Yalukit-willam of the Kulin Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land that The Substation is on. We extend our respects to their ancestors and elders past and present, and to all First Nations people.

We are committed to continually improving our services to ensure our events can be enjoyed by all. If you have specific access requirements (including seating arrangements for events) please get in touch.

Privacy Policy

Supporters:

© 2025 Substation. Website by Base Design.
Prev
Next
Newsletter