Ashley Holmes is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sheffield, working across sound, video, radio broadcasts and performance.
His work brings together themes of collective memory, ownership and belonging with a specific focus on the nuances and unique authority of music from the Caribbean.
Ashley has been in residence at FACT over the past 9 months, as part of the 2022 Jerwood Arts / FACT Fellowship. During this time, he has been exploring the legacy of Black music, with particular focus on the social, geographical and musical influences of Dub – a subgenre of reggae music – in Britain, and in the context of Liverpool.
As an outcome of his residency, Ashley presents a three-channel sound piece developed from field recordings and conversations taken in the city. The sound work explores the ways music travels: allowing us to re-imagine notions of storytelling, and examine the ways Dub, as an experimental process, provides a perspective for understanding and re-defining links between the past and present.
Ashley also presents a collection of works on paper as part of an ongoing series titled Abyssal, made in response to some of the audio recordings. Elements of his research are displayed in the space including poetry anthologies, extracts from Loosen the Shackles – a publication documenting the first report into race relations in Liverpool, and a selection of vinyl records from Ashley’s personal collection by Dub musicians and producers who used pioneering techniques of echo, delay and storytelling.