The Ghosts of Nothing (aka Sean Lowry and Ilmar Taimre) is a fictional “band” formed in 2014 to perform a collective artist function within the contemporary artworld. Sounds of Unridden Waves is a major new work developed over a three-year period by The Ghosts of Nothing in collaboration with a number of renowned artists and filmmakers. For this exhibition, an immersive video installation is presented together with an exuberant constellation of painted and photographic images, scholarly texts, original musical works, and related artefacts and objects.

The central video component of Sounds of Unridden Waves was conceived and produced by The Ghosts of Nothing, and features filmmaking contributions from Greg Huglin, Simone Douglas, Albert (Albe) Falzon, Ashley Beer, Ishka Folkwell, Jon Frank, Phillip George, Nathan Henshaw, Nathan Oldfield, and Monty Webber.

The labyrinthine accompanying exhibition of images and objects has been developed by The Ghosts of Nothing in collaboration with New York-based Australian artist Simone Douglas, and also features original collaborations with renowned filmmaker Albert Falzon (Director, Morning of the Earth) and Sydney artist Phillip George.

At its heart, Sounds of Unridden Waves is the world’s first feature length surf film without any human surfers. The film component was shot on location in Australia, Bali, Fiji, Hawaii, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, and Tahiti. This source footage was then radically reimagined and set to an epic original soundtrack by The Ghosts of Nothing. The extraordinary three-part extended soundtrack album for Sounds of Unridden Waves, created and produced by The Ghosts of Nothing, is also available on all major steaming platforms.

As its main storyline, Sounds of Unridden Waves is an unfolding series of speculative journeys across time and space set within a romantic and content-saturated psychotropic universe. Although fragmentary glimpses of recognisable surf breaks are occasionally apparent, the specific time and place at which Sounds of Unridden Waves is located is deliberately fluid. Like untamed entities that allegorically dwarf the insignificant mortality of the beholder, each successive wave and accompanying wall of ambient sound work together to build a quasi-narrative strangeness and posthuman otherness that is at once uncannily familiar and strangely alien. Ultimately, this sublime audio-visual response to the many moods and textures of the sea seeks to express a fundamental connection to the sublime majesty of the ocean and the spirit of surfing.

Curated by Cūrā8