The sound wave patterns of bird vocalizations are cryptic yet poetic, with beautiful hieroglyphic-like patterns. This graphic language of sound, when strung together into longer verses, becomes an architecture of sound. Upon placing these patterns literally into...
Alice Hargrave, a photo based artist in Chicago, incorporates sound, video, and photographic imagery within layered site specific installations. Her work addresses impermanence: environmental insecurity, habitat loss, and species extinctions. Hargrave collaborated with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to create her project Last Calls/Pink Noise, portraits of threatened birds using sound waves of their last calls in the wild. This project has been widely exhibited, most recently in Lianzhou, China, winning a 2020 Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, as well as the finalist award in 2019. She was a semifinalist in both the 2019 and 2020 International Awards of The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA. The bird call patterns are also translated into “Haute Couture” garments by Dovima Paris where profits directly benefit the birds.
Paradise Wavering, Hargrave’s monograph (Daylight Books 2016) and extensive solo exhibition, traveled to multiple venues across the United States.
Hargrave, is included in several permanent collections such as The Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago Artist Book Collection, The Ruttenberg Collection, Nuveen, and Hyatt. She has exhibited internationally and has been reviewed in journals such as Huffington Post, BBC News, and ARTNET. Her research has led her to Artist Residencies in The Florida Keys, Montana, Northern Wisconsin, and a Ragdale Fellowship award, Lake Forest, IL. Formerly Hargrave taught full time at Columbia College Chicago, and currently she has decided to teach part time while pursuing commissions, and conservation work.
Photo of Alice by ©Jessica Tampas