Hi-fi society

How sound system culture took over UK art and fashion

- Lanre Bakare

When visitors enter Peter Doig's House of Music show at Serpentine Galleries in London, they are confronted with not one but two sound systems.

The north gallery houses a vintage Western Electric and Bell Labs system that was used in cinemas in the 1920s and 30s, while Doig's set of Klangfilm Euronor speakers, which he acquired from Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, also pump music into the space. Doig's Maracas painting features towering speaker stacks.

"I was actually quite nervous," Doig said. "Would people be sort of scratching their heads and saying: 'Why do we need music to look at paintings?'" But Doig is not the only artist using high-end audio gear or sound systems in his work. His exhibition is part of a growing trend in which artists are turning the gallery into a listening space.

At Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery, Zinzi Minott's "blood-filled" speakers hummed over the Conversations group show, and last spring V&A East hosted Sound Clash, a weekend of sound system-based activity.