Paul Nataraj
b. Blackburn
Lives and works in Manchester
Paul Nataraj, Fear of a Black Planet, 2018
Paul Nataraj is a sound artist, researcher and educator whose practice explores the South Asian diaspora, sound, memory and sonic materiality. Using varied sculptural and compositional techniques, his work interrogates the entanglement between recorded sound and identity, considering rituals of listening, affect and grief.
Nataraj’s sound installation of nine vinyl record players in a three-by-three formation alludes to fractions of 108 – a number invoking celestial, scientific and creative significance across cultures, and believed by some to be the conduit to God, ‘state of pure freedom’. Distorting the 1981 BBC radio programme Taking the Strain by Penny Yendell, which appropriated yogic healing and relaxation techniques, the soundscape communicates the complex relationship between colonialism and spirituality.
Paul Nataraj has presented work at Nottingham Contemporary (2022), Leeds City of Culture (2023), British Textile Biennial (Blackburn, 2021), and at the Kochi Biennale, (India, 2022)
Jerwood Survey III
Listening Session: Paul Nataraj + Alliyah Enyo
Links :
https://www.paulnataraj.uk/
