Listening All Night to the Rain

A slow, immersive gallery of sound and image that asks you to sit still and listen, drifting through history and grief.

Directed by

John Akomfrah

Genres

Documentary

Overview

Listening All Night To The Rain continues John Akomfrah’s abiding interest in post-colonialism, ecology and the politics of aesthetics with a renewed focus on the sonic. Drawing its title from Chinese writer and artist Su Dongpo’s (1037 - 1101) poetry that meditates upon the transitory nature of life during a period of political exile, the exhibition is seen as a manifesto that encourages the act of listening as a form of activism. Conceived as a single landscape or artwork organised into song-like movements or ‘cantos’ that are inspired by American poet Ezra Pound’s (1885 - 1972) journey through history in The Cantos (1925), the exhibition brings together eight multimedia and sound installations.

How it feels

Melancholic, earnest, eerie and tense. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Colonialism, environment, memory, art

Content

Mild violence. No gore, sexual content or swearing.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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Watch the trailer on YouTube (opens in a new tab)