Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver: an unmuted serving

An unmuted serving is an improvised performance combining the acoustic and synthesized sounds of domestic steel cups, bowls, and plates, known in India and Nepal as the thali. The thali, although used by people of north Asian origin is prevalent in the Gulf countries, on sale or in use at restaurants in many of the residential areas where people of Indian and Pakistani origin reside.
The performance explores a realm of both familiar and uncovered sounds, both synchronizing and juxtaposing acoustic with electronically manipulated sounds. In an unmuted serving, the thali bowls and dishes sing out like the bells used for centuries in spiritual settings globally. Recontextualised, lit up on a stage, they take on the particular significance of both context and location.

Fari Bradley (Tehran) and Chris Weaver (London) are artists and composers focusing on sound and society. pushing the physical and architectural potential of sound and acoustics, their practice encompasses experimental music, radio, performance, installation, and sculpture. In a field of perception dominated by visual culture, the pair investigate acoustics as a means to establish and question new sets of social relations between subjects and space. Bradley and weaver’s diverse backgrounds combine in an analytical interest in sound and the tools that it can provide for expanded cultural analysis. Working together since 2006, they have released experimental music records in the UAE, composed and performed pieces they have composed, and participated in thematic group shows internationally. Both Bradley and weaver lecture in sound and radio, theory and practice in universities such as London College of communications, Karachi University, and New York University Abu Dhabi and they have published long-form articles related to the subject. in the United Arab Emirates with major commissions from art Dubai and al serkal avenue, residencies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and the release of an artist’s edition record with the vinyl factory, UK of which several tracks have had radio play on BBC national radio.