Listening All Night to the Rain

Synopsis

Listening All Night To The Rain continues John Akomfrah’s abiding interest in post-colonialism, ecology and the politics of aesthetics with a renewed focus on the sonic. Drawing its title from Chinese writer and artist Su Dongpo’s (1037 - 1101) poetry that meditates upon the transitory nature of life during a period of political exile, the exhibition is seen as a manifesto that encourages the act of listening as a form of activism. Conceived as a single landscape or artwork organised into song-like movements or ‘cantos’ that are inspired by American poet Ezra Pound’s (1885 - 1972) journey through history in The Cantos (1925), the exhibition brings together eight multimedia and sound installations.