Phone Home (2020), Phone cards and interactive audio.

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Original contributions from Andy Kingston, Ali Smith and Sarah Wood. Sound design: Simon Keep.

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An interactive installation presented as a hanging mobile. The sculpture was formed of a grid made up of an extraordinary array of dozens of phone cards collected from all over the world. Similar to the traditional postcard, the design of each one reflects its place of origin and shares the intention of connecting people to loved ones. A free-phone number etched in vinyl on the gallery’s front door invited curiosity. Awaiting a listening ear was a selection of short stories alongside a prompt to leave a message of one’s own. Drawing on the personal yet universal associations of the places we live or were born in, the work reminds us that geographical distance can reinforce the sense of familiarity, family and refuge we associate with ‘home’. 

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For the original iteration of the work Idit Elia Nathan wrote her first short story and a further three were commissioned from Andy Kingston, Ali Smith and Sarah Wood. Additional contributions followed and now all the short stories are archived on sound cloud with hope that the collection will continue to grow. 

 

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