Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies

A transatlantic conversation unfolds through repurposed World War II-era sound mirrors, transforming Locust Projects' gallery into an immersive sonic environment where voices from Miami and London interweave in patterns of resistance and ecological reflection. Artist Michael Webster has reimagined these parabolic structures—originally built along England's coastline to detect incoming aircraft—as transmitters rather than receivers, creating discrete listening zones throughout the space where visitors must physically position themselves to hear the fragmented, overlapping transmissions of poets Arsimmer McCoy and Selina Nwulu.

Drawn Breath, Exhaled Frequencies runs from August 16 through October 25 at Locust Projects, with an opening reception Saturday, August 16 from 7-9 p.m.

In this installation, listening becomes an intentional, embodied act. The fabricated sound mirrors concentrate acoustic signals to specific focal points, requiring viewers to move through the gallery to experience the full dialogue between the two writers. Their words carry coded warnings and quiet solidarity, washing over the space in varying intensities like tides, returning in loops and fragments that speak to themes of environmental anxiety and cultural preservation.

Webster, an Associate Professor at Wofford College and runner-up for the 2023 South Arts Southern Prize, specializes in site-specific projects that investigate power's effects on social geography. His collaborators bring distinct perspectives to this sonic architecture: McCoy, a Carol City native who founded Ms. Mary's House | The Carol City Museum in her family home, received the 2024 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Poetry Award and centers her work on Black life and place in Miami through cultural preservation and environmental stewardship. Nwulu, Young Poet Laureate for London from 2015 to 2016, explores themes of Blackness and climate justice in her Poetry Book Society-recommended collection A Little Resurrection and forthcoming essay collection Black Climates.

The installation transforms the Project Room into a space where silence and resonance meet, where breath becomes speech, and where listening requires both physical movement and focused attention. Visitors navigate between sound mirrors to piece together the artists' dialogue, experiencing how language and sound can bridge continents while addressing urgent contemporary concerns about ecology, resistance and solidarity.