Richard Crow

Crow, London 1986. Photo: Ada Dobrowska

Institution of Rot

Richard Crow aka Crow (born 1961) lives and works in London. His work as an inter-disciplinary artist transverses multi-media platforms including sound, experimental film and video, installation, and live performance. Crow has an MA in Sonic Arts from Middlesex University (2006). Crow manifests sound and noise for its disruptive, visceral and affective qualities and its psycho-physical implications for the listener. His solo and collaborative performances have consisted of highly conceptualized interventions into base materiality, investigations of alternative systems of organisation and research into a certain material decadence, most notably with the cult project The Institution of Rot.

As both a visual and performing artist he has exhibited, performed and presented his work internationally including giving lectures and talks in numerous academic contexts.  As an educator he has run workshops on sound and performance, teaching both graduate and postgraduate students how voice and language can be used in text based performance, music improvisation and sound recordings. His workshops are often based on reading texts and creating sound compositions and sonic interventions inspired by or activated directly from them. He has been omnipresent in the experimental art-music-noise scene in London and elsewhere since the mid 1980s. Crow has collaborated, performed, and recorded with a number of experimental musicians, sound poets and sonic artists including Duncan Jack (What is Oil?), Ashenden, Zan Hoffman, Phill Wachsmann, Adam Bohman (as Diastolic Murmurs), Richard Barrett, Paul Obermayer, Furt, The Elision Ensemble, The Hafler Trio, Clive Graham, Michael Prime, Heimo Lattner, Dean Roberts, Kaffe Matthews, Michael Morley (Gate, The Dead C), Sandoz Lab Technicians, Tanaka-Nixon Meeting, Nigel Bunn, dy’na:mo, e-Xplo, Alessandro Bosetti, Dmitri Prigov, KREV (The Kingdoms of Elgaland Vargaland), Esther Planas, Douglas Park, Gabriel Séverin, Gintas K, The Bohman Brothers, Richard Thomas, Aleksander Kolkowski, Nicola Woodham, Chandor Gloomy, John Wall and Luke Jordan.

He has exhibited and performed internationally and published many sound works since 1984 on his own imprint Institution of Rot (UK), as well as labels such as ZH27 (USA), Shelf Life (UK), Vintage Productions (UK), Paradigm Discs (UK), Durian Records (Austria), Touch (UK), Chocolate Monk (UK), [RHP] CDRs(UK), EAM (UK), COMA †‡† KULTUR ƩNĐ ϴF DΔYS (Netherlands), Musica Dispersa Records (Spain), Nostalgie De La Boue (Ivory Coast), Psych.KG (Germany) and Firework Edition (forthcoming)

His work has been performed and exhibited in Artspace (Sydney), Volksbuhne (Berlin), ICA (London), Halle Saint-Pierre, (Paris), South London Gallery (London), Moscow Museum of Modern Art at Petrovka (Moscow), The Freud Museum (London), Raven Row (London), Maxxi, (Rome), 5th Marrakech Biennial (Marrakech), Fonoteca Nacional de Mexico, (Mexico City), The Showroom (London), Café Oto (London), West (Den Haag), Calvert 22 Foundation (London), Visconti Studio (Kingston University), The Horse Hospital (London), Iklectik (London), Savvy Contemporary (Berlin), amongst others.

His work has been broadcast by Radio Panik – Brussels, BBC Radio 4, Touch Radio – London, ABC Classic FM – Australia, Radio Arte Mobile – Rome, Radio Corax – Halle, Resonance FM – London, Kunstradio – Vienna, amongst others.

Photo: Barry J Holmes (1994)

One response to “Richard Crow”

  1. […] Richard Crow inter-disciplinary artist, working in the field of experimental audio research, and performance with an MA in Sonic Arts from Middlesex University (2006). Crow manifests sound and noise for its disruptive, visceral and affective qualities and its psycho-physical implications for the listener. His solo and collaborative performances have consisted of highly conceptualised interventions into base materiality, investigations of alternative systems of organisation and research into a certain material decadence, most notably with the project The Institution of Rot. […]

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