Susan Philipsz

Philipsz was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, one of six siblings.Corner, Lena. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/nov/14/susan-philipsz-turner-prize-2010-sculptor-in-sound "The art of noise: 'sculptor of sound' Susan Philipsz"]; retrieved 11 April 2014.

Philipsz's father is half-Burmese and grew up in Burma as a child.Pennington, Clare. [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/clare-pennington/it-means-nothing-to-me-tu_b_1415174.html "It Means Nothing to Me: Turner-Prize-Winner Susan Philipsz's First Collaboration With her Father is exhibited in China"] The Huffington Post; retrieved 11 April 2014. His family's life was "pulled apart by the war", and he came to the UK in his twenties.Moira Jeffrey, [http://living.scotsman.com/features/Scottish-Turner-nominee-Susan-Philipsz.6551105.jp?articlepage=2 "Scottish Turner nominee Susan Philipsz finds the sound of silence the ideal canvas for her creations"], Scotsman.com, 28 September 2010; accessed 7 December 2010. In her youth, Philipsz sang in the local Catholic church choir with her sisters where she learned to harmonize.

From 1989 to 1993, she studied sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.[http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/susan-philipsz/series-installations "Susan Philipsz: Biography"]; tanyabonakdargallery.com; retrieved 11 April 2014. She later earned a master's degree in Fine Arts (MFA) degree from the University of Ulster, where she studied from 1993 to 1994.

From 2000 to 2001, she was a Studio Artist Resident at MoMA PS1.{{cite web|url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/16|title=MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: 2000–2001 National and International Studio Program Exhibition|work=momaps1.org|access-date=10 December 2015}} She was the Director of Catalyst Arts in Belfast for several years. Philipsz is married to Irish photographer [http://www.villa-aurora.org/en/grant-recipient-details/grant/333-eoghan-mctigue.html Eoghan McTigue].

File:Susan Philipsz - Ystad-Sweden- 2014.jpg harbour, for Susan Philipsz's sound installation "The Distant Sound"]]

File:Susan Philipsz - The Distant Sound. Ystad 2014.wav 25 May 2014.]]

Philipsz predominantly creates sound installations using recordings of her own voice that are played in specific geographical sites to "heighten the visitor's engagement with their surroundings while inspiring thoughtful introspection." Although Philipsz sings many of her works, it is a key element of her work that she has an untrained, average voice. Philipsz cannot read or write sheet music. She said: "Everyone can identify with a human voice. I think hearing an unaccompanied voice, especially an untrained one, even if it's singing a song you don't know, can trigger some really powerful memories and associations. If I'd gone to music school and had proper training, I would not be doing what I do today."

Her 1998 work "Filter", consisting of versions of songs by Nirvana, Marianne Faithfull, Radiohead and The Velvet Underground, has been played at a bus station and at a Tesco supermarket.{{cite web|last=Adams|first=Stephen|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/7675996/Supermarket-singer-on-Turner-Prize-shortlist.html|title=Supermarket singer on Turner Prize shortlist|work=The Telegraph|date=4 May 2010|access-date=6 December 2010}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10095760.stm|title=Turner Prize shortlist announced|work=BBC News|date=4 May 2010|access-date=6 December 2010}}

Her 1999 work "The Internationale" consists of a solo a cappella version of the revolutionary song.{{cite web|url=http://www.bos2008.com/app/biennale/artist/48|title=Susan Philipsz profile|publisher=Biennale of Sydney 2008|access-date=6 December 2010}} She sings the Irish ballad "The Lass of Aughrim" in her 2000 work, The Dead.{{cite magazine|first=Jonathan|last=Griffin|url=http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/susan_philipsz|title=Susan Philipsz profile|issue=116|date=June–August 2008|magazine=Frieze Magazine|access-date=6 December 2010}}

In her 2003 work, "Sunset Song", she sings the male and female parts of the 19th-century American folk ballad "Banks of the Ohio", with the volume level changing according to light levels.{{cite web|url=http://www.wexarts.org/ex/?eventid=4079|title=Susan Philipsz: The Shortest Shadow|publisher=Wexner Center for the Arts|year=2009|access-date=6 December 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://blog.cmoa.org/CI08/2008/02/susan-philipsz.php|title=55th Carnegie International: Susan Philipsz|publisher=Carnegie Museum of Art|year=2008|access-date=6 December 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/view.asp?key=22&subkey=413|title=Sunset Song, 2003, a sound installation by Susan Phillipsz|publisher=Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden|year=2007|access-date=6 December 2010}} She used a vibraphone for her 2009 piece, "You are not alone", commissioned for the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford.{{cite web|first=Skye|last=Sherwin|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/oct/30/exhibitionist-art-shows-this-week|title=Exhibitionist: The best art shows to see this week: You Are Not Alone, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford|work=The Guardian|date=30 October 2009|access-date=6 December 2010}}

In 2010, she was commissioned by the Glasgow International Festival. Her piece, "Lowlands", was three versions of what she calledThe song was actually a sailors' shanty, earliest dated to the 1860s, as in: Dallas, E.S., ed. 1868. "On Shanties". Once a Week vol. 31 (1 August 1868). a 16th-century Scottish lament, "Lowlands Away".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8659706.stm|title=Bridge song artist Susan Philipsz on Turner Prize list|work=BBC News|date=4 May 2010|access-date=6 December 2010}} It was played under three bridges over the River Clyde in Glasgow - George V Bridge, the Caledonian Railway Bridge, and Glasgow Bridge.{{cite web|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/apr/04/susan-philipsz-glasgow-international-interview|title=Susan Philipsz: Lament for a drowned love|work=The Guardian|date=4 April 2010|access-date=6 December 2010}} "Lowlands", was subsequently exhibited at Tate Britain, winning her the 2010 Turner Prize.{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/news/turner-prize-susan-philipsz-wins-prestigious-art-award|title=Turner Prize: Susan Philipsz wins prestigious art award|publisher=Channel4 News|first=Matthew|last=Cain|date=6 December 2010 |access-date=6 December 2010}}

Developed for documenta, Study for Strings (2012) riffs on an orchestral piece composed in 1943 at the Theresienstadt concentration camp for musicians there. For her recording, Philipsz redacted the parts for all the instruments except one cello and one viola, leaving plangent silences between those two players' scattered notes.Blake Gopnik (1 August 2013), [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/arts/design/museums-embrace-works-made-of-sound.html "Did You Hear That? It Was Art"], nytimes.com; accessed 10 December 2015.

Philipsz has exhibited at the Melbourne International Biennial 1999, Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana in 2000, the Tirana Biennial in 2001, at Triennal of British Art at Tate Britain in 2003, the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008, and at the 55th Carnegie International in 2009. She gave a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2008.[http://www.ica.org.uk/Out%20of%20Bounds:%20Susan%20Philipsz+17608.twl Institute of Contemporary Arts, Out of Bounds: Susan Philipsz, September 2008]

She was commissioned to create a work for the rotunda at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.glasgowinternational.org/index.php/artists/view/susan_philipsz|title=Susan Philipsz profile|publisher=Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010|access-date=10 December 2015}}{{cite press release|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/press-release-archive/2010/3300-haunted-release|title=Guggenheim exhibition of contemporary photographic imagery explores themes of memory, trauma, and return to the past|publisher=Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum|date=23 March 2010|access-date=10 December 2015}}

In 2011, Philipsz was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago to create a sound installation.{{cite web|url=http://www.mcachicago.org/media_uploads/releases/90a84Philipsz.pdf|title=Susan Philipsz: We Shall Be All|work=Press Release|publisher=Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago|access-date=9 June 2011}} This piece titled We Shall Be All draws from Chicago's labor history, specifically the 1886 Haymarket Affair and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2011/02/24/sounding-off-on-standing-up/|author=Viera, Lauren|title=Sounding off on standing up|work=Chicago Tribune|date=24 February 2011|access-date=10 December 2015}} Part of her 2011 exhibition at the MCA was a presentation of her work The Internationale in the building's atrium. In addition to her MCA exhibition, she presented her 2002 work Pledge at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, located on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus.{{cite web|url=http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/_programsevents/_upcomingevents/_2011/_the%20Pledge/pledge.html|title=Pledge|publisher=Jane Addams Hull House Museum|access-date=9 June 2011}}

In 2013 Philipsz was included in Soundings: A Contemporary Score, the first-ever major exhibition of sound art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1379 "Soundings: A Contemporary Score"], moma.org; retrieved 10 April 2014. In 2016, her work, "Part File Score" was exhibited at the Hirshhorn Museum.{{Cite web|title=Resource Centre - Hirshhorn Museum|url=http://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/resource-centre/#detail=/bio/press-release-susan-philipsz/&collection=resource-centre|website=hirshhorn.si.edu|access-date=24 February 2016}}

In 2003, Philipsz was nominated for the Beck's Futures award.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3322321.stm|title=Carpet artist up for Beck's prize|work=BBC News|date=16 December 2003|access-date=10 December 2015}} In 2010, she won the prestigious Turner Prize for a sound installation that features her singing three versions of a Scottish lament.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11928557|title=Supermarket singer on Turner Prize shortlist|publisher=BBC|date=7 December 2010|access-date=10 December 2015}} She received the £25,000 prize at a ceremony at Tate Britain that was disrupted by protests over the British Government's educational cuts. She was shortlisted for a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award that same year.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to British art.{{London Gazette|issue=60728|supp=y|page=25|date=31 December 2013}}

• Sound art
• List of sound artists

{{Reflist}}

• [http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/644495466001 Turner Prize 2010 winner Susan Philipsz talks about her work Lowlands], tate.org; 22 October 2010.
• [http://projectinsite.eu/the-distant-sound/ The Distant Sound]

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Category:1965 births

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Category:Alumni of the University of Dundee

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Category:British people of Burmese descent

Category:British sound artists

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Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

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Category:Turner Prize winners

Category:Women sound artists