Gail Priest is a Sydney-based artist with a multi-faceted practice in which sound is the key material of communication and investigation. Exploring the mediated voice, the tensions of text and sensorial immersion, her work attempts to dwell in a space between figuration and abstraction.
Originally trained in performance, a large part of her practice has involved creating soundtracks for theatre, dance and video. She began making and performing experimental electronica and electroacoustic music in 2003 and has since played festivals and events in Australia and Europe.
Currently she is concentrating on developing gallery-based concepts. She has contributed sound designs to installation works by Australian artists that have been exhibited nationally and internationally including Ars Electronica, Linz. Exhibitions of her own installations have been shown at Artspace, Sydney and Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan. Her recorded output has featured on international compilations and she has five solo recordings released through Endgame Records, Flaming Pines and her own Metal Bitch Recordings. She also writes about sound and media art and edited the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia (UNSW Press, 2009). As a curator she has produced festivals, concerts, exhibitions and screening programs for Performance Space, Artspace, Museum of Contemporary Art and Transmediale.