Sonia Leber


Geboren 1959.
Lebt in Melbourne.
Direktorin von Wax Sound Media.

1993, nachdem Sonia Leber bereits mehr als ein Jahrzehnt mit den Medien Film und Video gearbeitet hat, begann sie auch Sound als ein Medium zur Kunstproduktion einzusetzen. Gemeinsam mit David Chesworth gründete sie Wax Sound Media. Gemeinsam realisieren sie sound- und Multimediainstallationen für Kunsträume, Museen und öffentliche Plätze. Für die Soundinstallation "5000 Calls" wurde Sonia Leber mit dem NAWIC 2000 ARUP Award ausgezeichnet.



b. 1959
Lives in Melbourne.
Director, Wax Sound Media.

Sonia Leber's filmwork has been exhibited widely at film festivals and contemporary art spaces including Germany's Oberhausen International Film Festival (in competition); Madrid Week of Experimental Cinema; the Aurora Australis tour of galleries in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Ontario; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; ATOM Awards (finalist); Experimenta, Melbourne; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; and Australian Perspecta.

By 1993, after working in film and video for more than a decade, Sonia also started focusing on the use of sound as a creative medium. Together with fellow artist David Chesworth, she established Wax Sound Media as a unique arts practice creating sound and multimedia installations for art spaces, museums, and public sites.

Leber was awarded the NAWIC 2000 Arup Award for Achievement in Design for her work on 5000 Calls, in collaboration with David Chesworth. 5000 Calls is a large-scale multi-channel sound installation installed throughout the Urban Forest, an extensive 4.5 hectare loose grid of eucalyptus trees surrounding the Olympic Stadium in Sydney. Commissioned by the Olympic Co-ordination Authority's Public Art Program, it is scheduled to remain on site for ten years.

Recent projects include interpretive sound installations for the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne's Immigration Museum and the Museum of Sydney, reflecting Leber's ongoing interest in cultural history and the use of sound to multiply meanings and contexts.

Current commissions include a multi-monitor video installation for the opening of the new Cinemedia Gallery at Federation Square in Melbourne and long-term multi-media public art projects for both Cairns Foreshore Re-development and Canberra City Sculpture Walk.

In 1994, Leber was invited to curate a major 'sound art' event for the Melbourne-based Contemporary Music Events. Earwitness: Excursions in Sound presented a unique showcase for the work of over 25 major Australian and international artists working with sound. It featured installations and performance work at a wide variety of galleries and urban sites including Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Royal Botanic Gardens, Old Melbourne Observatory and Old Melbourne Gaol.

Leber began her association with RMIT's Faculty of the Constructed Environment in 1994. She established a subject in which students investigate the concerns of architecture and the urban environment through the medium of video. She continues to lecture in film theory and video production within the architecture/urban design context.

(last update april 2001)




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