“The hooded hawks in Martin King’s Silent Witness and Four Quarters provide a disembodied narrative loaded with evocative symbolism. In King’s prints the hawks appear contradictory. They are at once powerful yet vulnerable, wild yet restrained. The symbolism of the hooded hawk dates back to ancient Egypt. At the time it represented hope for those who lived in the shadows. I felt the audio needed to acknowledge this Arabic heritage. This is extended in Four Quarters where I manipulated samples of Middle Eastern instruments. In Silent Witness I worked with violin samples - the ascending and descending movements portray a sense of tension by flitting between tones of darkness and light.”

Jay-Dea Lopez
Curator