Monday 30 October - Saturday 11 November
Wild Whispers
Event details
“In San Diego Zoo, a world unseen, Chester Zoo emerges, a mirrored dream… Across oceans vast, day or night, San Diego and Chester – two worlds the same – where slumbers’ whispers bring no shame…”
The film Wild Whispers is a response by artists Estelle Woolley and Luke Moore to photographs taken by Stephen Clarke during his travels to San Diego Zoo in 1987. Here, the connection between San Diego and Chester zoos – oceans apart physically – is explored through the metaphorical connection of animals to the human subconscious.
In soft, haunting tones Woolley experiments with the possibilities of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) – the physical reaction to stimulating media, often manifested as a calm, tingling sensation. Her whispered poem, created using AI technology, connects the physicality of human responses to technological stimuli with the natural and uninhibited life of animals – imagination is a fundamental aspect of this physical response.
Clarke’s black-and-white animal photographs are captured in a dreamlike succession of images by Moore’s video editing, highlighting the capabilities of our subconscious to free us from the psychological cages that bind and set us on an imaginative exploration of our physical nature. Our animal selves constitute humanity’s universality; the power of our imagination connects us across time and space.
“Let the whispers guide you far and wide to dreamscapes where animals softly reside …”
Free (drop in)
Venue – Book Pod
Estelle Woolley is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chester. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally, appearing in publications such as The New York Magazine, The Politiken (Denmark), and Issues in Science and Technology Journal (Arizona State University). She was highly commended in The Sustainability First Art Prize 2020 (London), won the Ty Pawb Open People’s Prize 2021 (Wrexham) and First Place in The Grosvenor Museum Open 2022 (Chester). Her practice investigates the delicate relationships between humanity and the natural world.
Luke Moore is a Northwest composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He scores and records for other artists, with previous work being broadcast on BBC 2, Channel 4, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 music. He is artistic director of collaboration project Operation Lightfoot, with previous commissions including producing new work for the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science. He is also one third of the band Skylon and Creative Producer for Chester Bandstand. Luke has been collaborating with Estelle for over a decade on a variety of creative projects across the UK.
Stephen Clarke is an artist and writer. His work explores the connections between photography, collage and graphic image and is often concerned with cultural heritage. His writing has been published in a number of print and online publications including The Double Negative and The Art Newspaper. He is currently broadening his practice through collaboration with other artists, including Text by Dr. Hannah Harry, and Bill Poschman, who provided an ASMR soundtrack response of The Sisters by James Joyce to Clarke’s photographs of Burtonwood taken in 1984. Clarke is currently showing in the Rainbow TeaRooms in Chester as part of the Chester Contemporary Fringe – a collaboration with illustrator Steph Coathupe and writer Dr. Hannah Harry.