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Sonia Leber and David Chesworth - Biography


Collaborating since 1996, Melbourne based sound, video and installation artists, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, have created a diverse body of work using the human voice as their principal medium. A particular focus is the creation of sonic event spaces in the public domain.

Exhibitions in 2011 include We, The Masters, a sound-based installation commissioned by Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for Melbourne's City Square and Now and Forever is part of the In Camera and in Public group show at Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne. Leber and Chesworth are shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture which will be exhibited at Federation Square in Melbourne during November 2011.

Leber and Chesworth are artists in residence in IASKA's 2011 Spaced - Art Out of Place program, to be exhibited at the Fremantle Arts Centre in 2012. Their solo exhibition Space-Shifter, first shown at Conical in Melbourne in 2009, tours to Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2011.

Almost Always Everywhere Apparent, a large sound and structure project was the Helen Macpherson Smith Commission at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for 2007. It toured to Mildura Arts Centre in 2008, and a version was shown at the Govett-Brewster Gallery in New Zealand in 2011.

Richter/Meinhof-Opera had its first performance at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in 2010 for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and tours to Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2012. Recent installation works include Rewards of Silence, a commission for the chapel of the Separate Prison at Port Arthur, Field Formation, commissioned for the forecourt of AAMI Park stadium in Melbourne and Landing Place, a built-in soundscape commissioned for Botany Bay National Park in Sydney.

Reiterations (Elizabeth Street), an audio project commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in 2006 was also exhibited at Madrid Abierto in 2007. Leber and Chesworth created The Gordon Assumption for the visual art program of the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2004, and Chesworth's opera Cosmonaut was featured in the festival's performance program in the same year. The video installation, The Persuaders, was commissioned for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne in 2003.

Public artworks include The Master's Voice, a permanent soundscape installation for City Walk, Canberra, commissioned by ACT Public Art Program in 2001 and 5000 Calls, a permanent soundscape installation commissioned by the Sydney Olympic Park Public Art Program in 2000. 5000 Calls was also installed in 2002 along Millennium Riverwalk in Cardiff, Wales, organised by Chapter Arts Centre, and in 2003 along Shoemaker’s Footbridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia organised by Cankarjev Dom Arts Centre.

Leber and Chesworth collaborated with Simeon Nelson on Proximities, the 2006 Commonwealth Games public art commission for William Barak Bridge in Melbourne and Oceanic Endless for Melbourne's Cardinia Council in 2007. Dyad, a Leber/Chesworth/Nelson proposal was shortlisted for the London Olympic Park bridges commission.

Sonia Leber’s early films have been exhibited widely at film festivals and contemporary art spaces including Germany’s Oberhausen International Film Festival, Madrid Week of Experimental Cinema, the Aurora Australis tour of galleries in Canada, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and Australian Perspecta at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1994, Leber curated the sound art event Earwitness: Excursions in Sound for Melbourne’s Contemporary Music Events.

David Chesworth's music compositions and sound installations have been performed and exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally. Major festivals featuring his work include Ars Electronica, Festival d’Automne de Paris, Big Chill, Paris Quartier D'été, Edinburgh International Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Biennale of Sydney, SoundCulture and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Chesworth’s awards include a Churchill Fellowship and an honourable mention in Prix Ars Electronica.