thembi soddell

WHO IS DOING WHAT TO WHOM? (2022)

Image description: Large black reflective tilted cube in a gallery


HELD DOWN, EXPANDING (2018)

Image description: A reclined chair with 7 small speakers above around and beside it lit by dim red light

LOVE SONGS (2018)

Concrete poetry from Love Songs
Image description: Layers of text on a black background that reads “nothing is happening” over and over

Dr Thembi Soddell (b.1980) is a sound artist, electroacoustic composer and practice-based researcher, whose work is focused on representing and understanding the felt mental impact of trauma, emotional distress and so-called mental illness through the intensity of abstract, acousmatic sound. Their 2018 album Love Songs is streaming at Self-Titled Magazine and an audio paper discussing the concepts behind its making is on Liquid Architecture’s online journal Disclaimer. They completed their PhD at RMIT University in 2019, and a paper discussing their practice-based research methods has been published in Organised Sound.

Thembi is non-binary, using they/them/theirs pronouns, of European (Polish-Australian and Anglo-Celtic) descent, and living in the rural Victoria town of Clunes, Australia on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. In 2020 they received a Regional Arts Victoria Fellowship to research access, sustaining arts practice, and present their work with sound and mental health to their local community. Interviews conducted for this research and more can be found on this website. Their work has also been shown at galleries such as Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

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