Revenant

About the exhibition:

Revenant is a sculptural installation exploring the performance of voice through movement and interactive technology.

Five sculpted heads inhabit the space, created through a process of 3D scanning, digital sculpting and 3D printing. Each sculpture combines multiple faces into a single form, creating identities that feel simultaneously familiar and unknowable. Emerging voices are triggered by the audience as they navigate around the sculptures. These voices overlap, and harmonise together, gradually forming an improvisational choir shaped by the movement and number of people within the space.

Melancholic, intimate and curious, Revenant brings together sculpture, interactive technology and original vocal composition to reflect on presence and absence, the physical body and digital representation. The audience does not simply observe or listen; movement becomes a performative part of the artwork. Each visitor enters into a relationship with the sculptures and voices. No single participant completely controls the sound. Instead, the choir emerges through human-computer interaction and a shared exchange between audience members.

This project was kindly funded by the Individual Artists Digital Evolution Awards, supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

About the artist:

Richard Davis is an artist, animator and musician based in Belfast. Originally trained in animation, he has created hand-made 2D animated work for music, film and television, including projects for Snow Patrol, BBC NI, and Historic Royal Palaces.

Alongside his visual practice, Richard writes and performs original music under the name Heliopause. While completing a Master’s in Digital Media Arts at the University of Brighton, he began bringing these disciplines together, creating sculptural installations and instruments that use interactive technologies to rethink how audiences can listen to, and physically engage with music.

In 2023, he completed a PhD in Music at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast. His practice-based research investigated the performance of voice using interactive technologies, movement and improvisation to explore song narratives.

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PS² is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council's Artists' Studio and Makerspace Organisational Grant, Arts & Business NI's Blueprint Investment Grant, and Dormant Assets NI through The National Lottery Community Fund.