It was a case of good vibrations on Monday night (22 May) at a special dinner hosted by Thaddaeus Ropac to celebrate Oliver Beer’s current pair of shows at Mr R’s grand new London gallery and also at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery. The artist treated 20 guests—including the Ikon Gallery director Jonathan Watkins, the Ikon and Tate patron Alia Al Senussi, and the also-iconic Bianca Jagger—to a highly exclusive performance. In Resonant Project, classically trained singers planted in four corners of the main hall of the gallery cause the building to reverberate with the uncanny sound of its own special acoustic frequency.
Later, Beer offered some even more bespoke tuition, in the fine art of space-singing, to the musician and art collector Andrew Hale. And soon the duo were making the upstairs dining room hum in unison. As well as being a patron of contemporary art, Hale is also a member of Sade’s band and co-writes many of her songs. Who knows, maybe the diva’s next album—which is apparently currently in the pipeline—might now contain a rather more noticeable amount of reverb?