Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place

Hear Us O Lord - snapshot exhibition at University of Leeds, 6 December 2023 - 25 January 2024. An ongoing multi-media research project developed by a network of artists, students, musicians, a former Shell sea captain, poets and one of the world’s leading sound recordists who have been sailing between the Wirral birthplace of Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) and the Isle of Man, a place he used as early as the 1950s to write about ocean pollution in collections such as Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, named after a Manx fishermen’s hymn. The Isle of Man, population 84,000, is 85% marine territory and our network has been meeting Government ministers, wild swimmers, environmentalists, beach cleaners and local musicians to develop a series of podcasts and artefacts, some of which are on display here. The network comprises Alan Dunn, Helen Tookey, Bryan Biggs, The Art Doctors (Liz Stirling and Alison McIntyre), Roger Cliffe-Thompson, Rob Keith, Cian Quayle, Louise K. Wilson, Chris Watson, BAD PUNK / Band of Holy Joy (James Stephen Finn & Johny Brown), Ian Murphy, Jessica Van Horssen, Sarah Hymas, Olga Munroe, Ben Parry, David Jacques, Hannah Dargavel-Leafe, Matt Green, Kristina Nenova and Frankie Mazzotta. The research was supported by the AHRC and is a partnership between Leeds Beckett University and Liverpool John Moores University. The network has recently secured AHRC Follow-on Funding to return to the Isle of Man throughout 2024-25 to specifically focus on underwater recording towards a series of workshops and listening stations around the island. Case 1 Bryan Biggs The Straight Line is a Utopia: Horizontal Sketches from Port and Stern, concertina digital prints of pencil drawings (2022). Case 2 Various artefacts from visits (2021-22), including, including Sarah Hymas Book of the Sea, Matt Green Five Frayed Edges (LP sleeves collaged from network images with QR links to podcasts), Alan Dunn The only surviving piece of the Lego boat given to me by my ship-building grandfather (taken on each crossing to Isle of Man), a marble found by Helen Tookey during cleaning session with the Beach Buddies and Louise K. Wilson Sea frames. Cases 3 and 4 The Art Doctors, various artefacts and echoes from their engagement with ferry passengers, wild swimmers and the sea, including concertina flag book, ferry poetry, semaphore flags, Touching the human and a pot of sea words. Wall frames Frankie Mazzotta symbiotic mutualism.

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