Synopsis:

While speaking is often taken as central to the exercise of power, less examined is the role of listening. Yet, if the core responsibility of the representative is to speak on behalf of those for whom he or she stands in, then surely the task must include the ability to listen. So while we claim that speech today is in crisis, we might observe that it is in fact the death of listening that is pressing upon us.

For Zou Zhao, listening, unlike hearing, is an experience of difficulty. It requires effort, persistence and the presence of others. She turns the Chamber into a rehearsal room for testing, practising and redistributing the task of representation. Further enlisting the participation of the audience, the work calls on us to reconsider what it means to assemble so as to listen.

Working in the mediums of performance, video and writing, Zou Zhao explores issues surrounding language, ideology, subjectivity and translation through the materiality of the voice. Working between New York and Singapore, she has exhibited at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery (New York), LUMA/Westbau (Zürich), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Camden Arts Centre (London), Artesonje Center (Seoul) and Institute of Contemporary Arts (Singapore). In 2013, she received the Berenice Goodwin Award for Performance from Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.