David Chesworth
David Chesworth works across sound art, experimental music, video and installation practice, examining the diverse ways we sense the world and how our understandings align through art, philosophy and the non-human. Chesworth's parents moved the family from Britain to Melbourne, Australia in the late 1960s. Chesworth studied at Latrobe University, including time with tutor and composer Jeff Pressing. From 1978 until 1982 Chesworth coordinated the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre in Melbourne, and formed the post-punk bands Essendon Airport and Whadya Want? and later The David Chesworth Ensemble. Chesworth’s collaborative practice with artist Sonia Leber is known for its distinctive video, sound and architecture-based installations that are audible as much as visible.
A list of Chesworth's collaborators includes: audio/visual artist Sonia Leber; guitarist Robert Goodge in the group Essendon Airport; musician and sound designer Philip Brophy; electronic musician Philip Jackson in the group Whadya Want?; librettist Douglas Horton and soprano Helen Noonan. In 1993 he formed The David Chesworth Ensemble to perform his own works. He lives in Melbourne in partnership with Sonia Leber. Together they run the company Wax Sound Media. Exhibitions include ‘56th Venice Biennale (2015), ‘19th Biennale of Sydney (2014), ‘Melbourne Now’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013-14). Festivals featuring Chesworth’s music and sound works include Ars Electronica, Festival D’Automne de Paris, Bang on a Can Marathon, New York, Sydney Biennale, Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals and MONA FOMA.