FREYA DOOLEY

CONTACT / freyadooley (at) gmail (dot) com

Full CV

I work across media encompassing sound, writing, moving-image and performance. Often rooted in close-range observations and informed by diverse cinematic, literary and musical references, my work comprises semi-fictional narratives and layered soundtracks which expand outwards in scale, weaving together voice, electronics and instrumentation. Navigating connections between divergent subjects, the wider themes in my practice relate to the harmonies and tensions between personal and collective experiences, with a particular interest in structures of work and domestic living. 

I was the Creative Wales Fellow at the British School at Rome in 2021, where I was researching the politics and history of dubbing, and experimental approaches to post-synchronised voice and sonic artifice in Italian Cinema. I’m currently developing a new body of work from this research, which was supported in it’s R&D stages by the Arts Council of Wales, and in it’s production stages by a Wales Venice 10 Artes Mundi Commission.

The work forms part of my solo exhibtion False Note which opens at Site Gallery, Sheffield in March 2024. The works in the exhibition relate to both the musical and idiomatic meanings of this term ‘False Note‘: miscommunications, untruths, insincerity, and inconsistencies. I’m also currently working on new music in collaboration with the musician Emma Daman Thomas and a performance will close the exhibition on May 30th, supported by a PRS Foundation Women Make Music Award.

I also share an ongoing collaborative practice with artist Cinzia Mutigli. We’ve been making performance, broadcasts, events and publications since 2013. Our solo exhibition All You Need to Do Is Take It was commissioned by GS Artists, Swansea in June 2023, supported by the Arts Council of Wales.

Solo exhibitions and performances include Diamonds and Rust, Goldsmiths CCA, London (2022); Temporary Commons, Jerwood Solo Presentations at Jerwood Arts, London (2021); The Eavesdropper, a site-specific moving-image commission for Green Man Festival, (2021); Scenes from Between the Mountains and the Sea, Beppu Project, Oita, Japan (2020) supported by Wales Arts International; Ventriloquy for Radio, Holden Gallery, Manchester (2020) which was aquired in the French National Collection by FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in 2022; New Writing with New Contemporaries, with performances at Leeds Art Gallery and South London Gallery (2019-20); The Song Settles Inside the Body it Borrows, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2019); Somewhere in the Crowd There’s You, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2019). A vinyl record edition was published by Eastside Projects in 2020. Recent group exhibitions and screenings include Roma, a Portrait, curated by Magic Lantern Film Festival, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2023); Il était une fois, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, France (2023); Eco-Futura Cinema, Carriage Works, Denbigh (2023); and the Winter Mostra, British School at Rome, Italy (2021).

I’m currently sitting a three-year term on the a-n Artist Council (2022-25). I’m also a member of the second cohort of the Future Leaders Programme with Unite the Union, Wales (2022-23). I was also a member of Syllabus III, an alternative peer-led learning programme, jointly delivered by Wysing Arts Centre, Eastside Projects, New Contemporaries, S1 Artspace, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire and Iniva (2017-18).

I’m Associate Tutor (BA Fine Art) at Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Met University, and a visiting tutor at UWE, Bristol (BA Art & Writing). I freelance as a tutor, mentor and workshop fascilitator, working mainly in adult/life-long learning and post-cumpolsory eductation in gallery, FE and community settings. Organisations I’ve worked with include Goldsmiths, London (BA Fine Art & History of Art); Arts Catalyst, Sheffield; Cardiff Open Art School & the ABF Step-Change programme, Cardiff Metropolitan Univeristy; Made in Roath, Cardiff; Artes Mundi; Tate St Ives; ebc/east bristol contemporary Nightschool & Dayschool, Bristol; Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; g39, Cardiff; A2 Connect; and The National Museum Wales.

Alongside my own practice I am a freelance Sound Designer and have practical and research experience in narrative audio, soundtracking for moving image, multi-channel installation and podcasts. I’m available for freelance sound design projects and teaching work - email freyadooley (at) gmail (dot) com. I’m based in Cardiff.