John Wynne is an artist whose research-led practice includes large-scale multi-channel sound installations for galleries and public spaces, delicate sound sculptures, flying radios and award-winning ‘composed documentaries’ for radio which hover on the boundary between documentary and abstraction. He was artist-in-residence for one year at Harefield Hospital, one of the world’s leading centres for heart and lung transplants, alongside photographer Tim Wainwright.
His work with speakers of endangered click languages in Botswana led to solo exhibitions at the National Art Gallery of Namibia and SOAS in London and a half-hour commission for BBC Radio 3. Anspayaxw, based on an endangered indigenous language in Canada, showed at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver and at the ‘Ksan Museum in Gitxsan territory.
John’s Installation for 300 speakers, Pianola and vacuum cleaner became the first work of sound art in the Saatchi collection and won him the 2010 British Composer Award for Sonic Art.
John is a Reader in Sound Arts at the University of the Arts London and has a PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London.