Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Shapes of Listening, 2024, 2-channel 4K video, 5.1 audio. Video still courtesy of the artists. This project has been supported by Creative Victoria and Creative Australia.
Dancenorth is located on the corner of Walker and Stanley Streets: 188-210 Stanley St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD Australia 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue Accessibility- The ground floor of the venue is fully accessible, this includes the Dancenorth Theatre, foyer, bar, main offices and wheelchair accessible toilet.
- The main entrance is located at Stanley Street and accessible via wheelchair lift.
- There is a drop off area outside the Clarion Hotel on Stanley Street, 50m from our main entrance. Please contact Dancenorth prior to your visit to if you have any questions (07) 4772 2549.
- Dancenorth warmly welcomes assistance animals.
This is a free event.
Saturday 27 July - Sunday 11 August. 9:30am - 4:30pm
Shapes of Listening
Sonia Leber & David Chesworth
Shapes of Listening is a new sensorial video and sound installation by Melbourne / Naarm-based artists Sonia Leber and David Chesworth.
Shapes of Listening prompts questions around the act of listening across the water and forest ecologies of Gurambilbarra / Townsville. What if listening was our primary mode of sensing? How might listening practices influence how we sense, understand, and care for the environment? The word ‘listening’ includes listening to what's actually heard, to what's imagined, and ‘thinking through listening’ in natural ecosystems.Using unique camera choreographies imbued with an ‘acoustic consciousness’, Leber and Chesworth capture a range of species and people investigating the environment, utilising sensing, tactile methods and specialist microphones (hydrophones, microbat detectors and contact sensors) to explore different presences and absences in key local environments.
Leber and Chesworth are known for their distinctive video, sound and architecture-based installations that are audible as much as visible. Their works are speculative and archaeological, often involving communities and hinting at unseen forces and non-human perspectives.
The Shapes of Listening | In Conversation will be held on Sunday 28 July 10.30am - 12.15pm with talks from Sonia Leber, David Chesworth, Simon Robson, Bat Researcher - Central Queensland University, Wahtjah Johnson, Ranger - MinggaMingga Land and Sea Rangers and Cathie Page, Experimental Scientist - AIMS Australian Institute of Marine Science. Click here to find out more.
Shapes of Listening is presented in partnership with Australian Festival of Chamber Music. This project is commissioned by PUNQ and has been assisted by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
About The ArtistSonia Leber and David Chesworth are known for their distinctive video, sound and architecture-based installations that are audible as much as visible. Leber and Chesworth’s works are speculative and archaeological, often involving communities and elaborated from research in places undergoing social, technological or local geological transformation. Their works emerge from the real but exist significantly in the realm of the imaginary, hinting at unseen forces and non-human perspectives.
Leber and Chesworth’s work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at National Gallery of Victoria (2023); Casino Luxembourg Forum d'art Contemporain, Luxembourg (2023); TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville (2022); Messums Wiltshire, UK (2021); Fondation Fiminco, Paris (2021); UNSW Galleries, Sydney (2019); annex M, Megaron, Athens (2018); Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland (2018); Index, Stockholm (2018); Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2018); Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2017); Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2017); Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2016); Venice Biennale (2015); and Biennale of Sydney (2014).
The artists live and work in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia
A full project history can be found at www.leberandchesworth.com.
Dancenorth is located on the corner of Walker and Stanley Streets: 188-210 Stanley St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD Australia 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue Accessibility- The ground floor of the venue is fully accessible, this includes the Dancenorth Theatre, foyer, bar, main offices and wheelchair accessible toilet.
- The main entrance is located at Stanley Street and accessible via wheelchair lift.
- There is a drop off area outside the Clarion Hotel on Stanley Street, 50m from our main entrance. Please contact Dancenorth prior to your visit to if you have any questions (07) 4772 2549.
- Dancenorth warmly welcomes assistance animals.
This is a free event.
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PUNQ respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhan, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.
PUNQ respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhan, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.
PUNQ is produced by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts. The festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. Townsville City Council is a funding partner of PUNQ.