A unique collaboration between Mercury Prize nominated widescreen minimalists Portico Quartet and Turner Prize nominated artist Hannah Collins, in which Collin’s sensitive, mesmerising images of Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile, find a quietly resonant dialogue with the Quartet’s 2021 album Terrain.
Terrain represents one of the most artistically free and beautiful pieces the band have composed, moving through different musical worlds, with a sense of horizontal movement that lends the music real momentum. It is presented here as a counterpoint to Hannah Collin’s captivating images of Las Campanas Observatory, the composition moves between tranquility and a subtly unsettling melancholy that perfectly illuminates Collin’s powerful images, creating a unique audio-visual work: Terrain: The Earth Beneath My Feet
Based in East-London, Portico Quartet, have defied categorisation over the course of six studio albums. From their 2007 Mercury Music Prize nominated breakthrough ‘Knee-Deep in the North Sea’ through to the longform minimalist and ambient inspired ‘Terrain’ in 2021.
Read moreThe Portico Quartet Ensemble features an expanded and reconfigured line-up of Duncan Bellamy - drums and sampler, Jack Wyllie - saxophone and piano, Simran Singh – violin, Joy Becker – violin, Laura Senior - violin and viola, Rachel Shakespeare – cello, Taz Modi - keyboards and bass & Keir Vine - hang and piano.
Hannah Collins was born in London in 1956. From 1989 to 2010 she lived and worked in Barcelona, and today lives between London and Almeria, Spain. Collins has received many awards including a Fulbright Scholarship and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1993. Her body of work includes photographs, films, written texts and books. She is known for her work in expanding the fields of photography and film. Her works are embedded in historical and social frameworks with a wide range of subjects and geographical locations. Her involvement in a body of work often continues over many years. Most recently Hannah Collins curated the exhibition We Will Walk - Art and Resistance in the American South at Turner Contemporary in Margate UK in 2020.
“Profoundly democratic, Collins’s work quietly insists on revealing the complexities of life, and the ways we relate to the world around us collectively and as individuals, through vision and memory, to achieve works of subtle power.” Sprengel Museum Hannover, 2015
“Portico Quartet stake claims to territory occupied by Radiohead, Cinematic Orchestra and Efterklang”. ***** The Guardian