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Natalie Sharp (Experimental Music, 2020)Lone Taxidermist-1-33

Natalie Sharp

Shortlisted in 2020 for Experimental Music

Natalie Sharp’s sonic practice begins and ends with interrogating the body, which she describes as “ A playground for creative activities” whether it be through skin decoration, wearable sculpture or creating sound synthesis with anatomy”. Exploring issues around gender and sexuality, her practice pushes the parameters of the live environment to incorporate and encourage audience participation.

Sharp has never been too concerned with competently playing traditional instruments, she is more interested in how to welcome audiences into a place where they can “all play and have fun with each other.” For her show Trifle which has been touring Europe for the past 12 months, Sharp created a tactile and immersive environment using themes of gluttony and excess to explore industrial, surreal and fetishistic sound.

Sharp was commissioned by Radio 3’s Late Junction show to collaborate with the band faUSt; making music from her recordings of an MRI scanner and a cement mixer. The performance became BodyVice, an exploration of Sharp’s chronic pain: how the body can be used as an interface for sound and what hospital machinery can teach us about ourselves.