Taryn Hubbard: Surrey City Centre née Whalley

Surrey City Centre née Whalley is a multi-channel soundscape composed of environmental recordings collected over the course of one year. The audio recordings document a city in transition. Sounds were collected from across North Surrey, with a majority recorded in the new Surrey City Centre and larger Whalley region. The work is an audio map of the city, conveying both the serene and jarring qualities it encompasses. Major construction projects such as South Fraser Perimeter Road and the new City Hall present a cacophony of sound in contrast to the gentle atmospheres found within local parks and nature sites. The hum of traffic and transportation confirms a city in constant motion. Indiscriminate chatter from passing residents fills the spaces in between. As Surrey City Centre continues to transform, the sounds are but a transmission from the recent past, triggering memories in the mind of the listener.

Surrey City Centre née Whalley is the first exhibition of Open Sound 2015. Open Sound is an exhibition program developed in 2008 to support the production and presentation of audio art forms as part of contemporary art practice. In conjunction with the Surrey Art Gallery's focus on Surrey and its surrounding South Fraser region for our 40th anniversary, this year's Open Sound 2015 exhibition titled Polyphonic Cartograph presents three sound art installations that examine the relationship between sound and space. This year’s artists include Taryn Hubbard, John Wynne, and Carmen Papalia and Andrew Lee.

About the Artist

Taryn Hubbard is a writer, editor, and digital communications specialist living in Surrey, BC. She currently serves as the Business Manager for Room magazine and is a member of its editorial collective. Her poetry, reviews, and interviews have been published or are forthcoming in journals such as The Capilano Review, CV2, WOMANZINE, Harlequin Creature, echolocation, EVENT, Room, and others. Her first chapbook, RE: was published July 2014 by dancing girl press (Chicago). Hubbard is a founding member of South of Fraser Inter-Arts Collective (SOFIA), an interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration in literary, visual, and digital arts.

Curator: Jordan Strom
Origin of Exhibition: Surrey Art Gallery

Image credit: Whalley/Surrey City Centre area by Taryn Hubbard.