Curatorial Text by Guy Robertson (Mahler LeWitt studios)

Abbas Zahedi's new work, developed during his residency, is titled torre W11. It serves as an acoustic re-mapping of the tower, drawing particular inspiration from and responding to the Sol LeWitt wall drawings. With various interventions (which include using synthesisers and informal collaborations with visitors to the tower) Zahedi has used microphones and transducers to find and record the acoustic qualities of the tower itself. He then plays these recordings back into the tower (the acoustics produced by the transducers are dependent on the acoustic properties of the objects they are played through. Zahedi 'tunes' his recordings to suit specific objects in the tower and their acoustic properties). The title of this installation makes reference to the London postcode where Zahedi lives and which is part of the same housing complex as Grenfell Tower, where 72 people were killed in June 2017 when a fire broke out due to the installation of unsafe and illegal cladding installed by the local authority. This is one of the largest scale disasters in Britain in recent memory, and still without any justice or accountability. Zahedi’s interdisciplinary practice blends contemporary philosophy, poetics and social dynamics with sound, sculpture and other gestures. Before studying art, he trained as a medic and his work explores related themes to do with care and grief.