After SFX
Live audio essay by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
When sound emerges as the court’s forgotten witness
After SFX explores the complexity and potential of sonic memory, and how our recollections of sound can help reconstruct criminal offences and other events where vision falls short.
Abu Hamdan describes his practice as that of a ‘private ear’ or independent audio investigator, a role that comes into focus during this performance together with sound designer Adam Laschinger and percussionist Iain Stewart. He manipulates objects from his Earwitness Inventory, a collection of everyday items designed to recreate sounds described by crime witnesses.
These objects, from trays and plastic containers to gravel and metal rods, are used on stage to simulate memories of sonic events that witnesses recall with varying clarity, often reaching for comparisons that transform violent sounds into familiar imagery.
A gunshot might be remembered as ‘somebody dropping a rack of trays’, or a collapsing building as sounding ‘like popcorn’.
While performing, Abu Hamdan narrates his encounters with earwitnesses, weaving together legal cases, personal recollections, and reflections on language, listening, and the politics of sound. The result is a hybrid form of lecture, sound work and performance — what the artist calls a live audio essay — and a forensic listening session that draws the audience into the uncertain terrain where memory and justice meet.
Artist Talk: Lawrence Abu Hamdan
20 September 14:00–15:00, MUNCH I Toppsalen
Free admission with registration
MUNCH invites you to a conversation with artist and investigator Lawrence Abu Hamdan about the performance After SFX and his new exhibition Zifzafa.
Abu Hamdan describes himself as a “private ear.” Through the NGO Earshot, he has developed a forensic practice that analyses sound as legal evidence, collecting sonic recollections from witnesses to reconstruct the acoustic environment of forbidden or endangered places.
In performances like After SFX—presented at MUNCH/Ultima on 19 September, and described by the artist as a live audio essay—he demonstrates this process and introduces the databank of sound effects that has grown out of it. Zifzafa, shown at MUNCH from 18 September, examines the impact of more than 30 planned wind turbines on residents of the occupied Golan Heights.
Abu Hamdan’s practice spans installations, films, audio essays, performances, and publications, and has been presented at Tate Modern, MoMA, and the Venice Biennale. He is a recipient of the Turner Prize the Edvard Munch Art Award. The conversation is led by MUNCH curator Tominga O’Donnell.
Facts
- A live audio essay is is a form of storytelling or reflection that unfolds through sound, voice and occasional music rather than text. The term live emphasises listeners’ sense that the storyteller’s ideas take shape in the moment.
- Lawrence Abu Hamdan has described himself as a Private Ear, on behalf of people under attack from state authorities and others such as Israeli soldiers in Palestine and the Parisian police. His work has been presented in the form of forensics reports, lectures, live performances, films, publications and exhibitions.
- Abu Hamdan runs the earshot.ngo, a not-for-profit organisation producing audio investigations for human rights and environmental advocacy.
- After SFX is presented in conjunction with Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s exhibition Zifzafa at MUNCH (18.9.2025–4.1.2026).
After SFX (2025). Photo: Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Photo: Diana Pfammatter Photography
Concept and performance
- Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Percussion
- Iain Stewart
Sound design
- Adam Laschinger
In collaboration with
- MUNCH
