Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985, in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

) is a contemporary artist based in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. His work looks into the political effects of listening, using various kinds of audio to explore its effects on human rights and law. Because of his work with sound, Abu Hamdan has testified as an expert witness in asylum hearings in the United Kingdom. His work has been featured in major group exhibitions including the

British Art Show The British Art Show (BAS) is a major survey exhibition organised every five years to showcase contemporary British Art. Each time it is organised, the show tours to four UK cities. It usually requires a number of venues in each city to accommod ...

8 (2015–17), the

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Every two years, the city of Liverpool hosts an extensive range of artworks, projects, and a programme of events. The biennial commissions leading ...

(2016), and third New Museum Triennial (2015). Solo exhibitions of the artists work have been presented at the Chisenhale Gallery (2018); The Showroom, London (2012); Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2015); and

Portikus Portikus is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Frankfurt am Main, that was founded in 1987 by Kasper König. The museum is part of the Museumsufer. Portikus presents the work of internationally renowned artists, and exhibits younger, emer ...

, Frankfurt (2016). His work is included in the collections of the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He jointly won, with

Tai Shani Tai Shani (born 1976) is a British artist. Shani uses performance, film, photography, sculptural installations and experimental texts to explore forgotten histories and stories. She is currently a Tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Roya ...

, Oscar Murillo and

Helen Cammock Helen Cammock ( ; born 1970) is a British artist. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Turner Prize and was awarded the prize along with the other three nominees ( Tai Shani, Oscar Murillo and Lawrence Abu Hamdan). For the first time ever, they as ...

, the 2019

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

for his work based on interviews with former detainees at a Syrian prison.

Career and artwork

Born in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, Abu Hamdan grew up in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in the UK. In the 2000s he played in a series of DIY bands, including Isambard Kingston Brunel, Poltergroom and Cleckhuddersfax, who released records on the London-based label

Upset The Rhythm Upset The Rhythm is an independent record label based in London with a varied roster of leftfield artists and bands; they also operate as a diverse DIY live music promoter. Huw Stephens featured Upset The Rhythm as "purveyors of interesting indi ...

. Abu Hamdan received his PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

in 2017. Abu Hamdan describes his work as concerned with the "politics of listening." Describing himself as a "private ear", his work confronts specific instances and examples of listening and the voice as they related to legal and political contexts. In his 2012 radio documentary ''The Whole Truth'', he explored new technologies that were attempting to act as lie-detectors for voices. In a 2015 commission for

The Armory Show The Armory Show is an international art fair in New York City, known as New York's Art Fair. Established in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair by dealers Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the annua ...

in New York, he distributed bags of

potato chips A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or appe ...

in foil wrappers. The work built on research undertaken by scientists at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in which they were able to turn common objects into listening devices by capturing vibrations recorded on physical objects and transferring them back into speech. His audio investigations have been used as evidence in UK asylum and immigration courts, and in support of organisations such as

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and Child Protection International, as well as researchers in forensic architecture. He has won awards including the 2016 Nam June Paik New Media Award, the 2020 Edvard Munch Award, and the 2019 Turner Prize, which he won jointly with

, Oscar Murillo and

. He has held solo exhibitions at Witte De With Rotterdam (2019),

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

Tank & Chissenhaller, London,

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, Los Angeles (2018),

Frankfurt (2016),

Kunstmuseum St. Gallen Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (English: ''Art Museum St. Gallen''), is a Swiss art museum founded in 1877 and located in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It is an important museum within Eastern Switzerland because of their expansive European art collection. ...

(2015), Cairo Beirut (2013), London Showroom (2012) and Utrecht Casco (2012). His work is in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, Guggenheim, Van Abbe,

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

and Tate Modern. Abu Hamdan is a fellow at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, was a guest at the DAAD Artists Program in Berlin in 2017-18, and was a fellow at the

Vera List Center for Art and Politics The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is an American nonprofit research organization and public forum for art, culture, and politics, established in 1992. Vera List was an American art collector and philanthropist. The Jane Lombard Prize fo ...

at the

New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

in New York from 2015-17.

Awards and fellowships

* Edvard Munch Award (2020) *DAAD Visual Artists Residency (2017) * Nam June Paik Award (2016) * Vera List Center Fellow, New School, New York (2015–17) *2019

Exhibitions

* Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut (2019)

Publications

References

External links

Word Stress: Lawrence Abu Hamdan in conversation with Anthony Downey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Hamdan, Lawrence Living people Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London 1985 births Jordanian contemporary artists People from Amman