The Exchange, Penzance: Zed Love, Libita Sibungu

This exhibition runs until the 31st October 2026

This exhibition left me with a mild feeling of irritation and grudging respect for Libita Sibunga.  The sort you might have for a Jehovah's Witness knocking on your door and wanting to convert you against your wishes.  Except in this case, it was very cleverly done, so cleverly I didn't realise.  It isn't even that I disagree, I have a huge amount of respect and time for spirituality.  It was the lack of choice in what was actually a very powerful exhibition.

Let me back up a long way.  I reached the exhibition, stepped inside and grabbed a handy leaflet.  Spying a handy seat at the far end, I decided to make for that and read the leaflet.  Sue me, walking is tiring as is standing in an exhibition.  I always appreciate a good seat.

So I read the leaflet and what really stood out was that the soundscape lasted for 59 minutes.  I like to do things thoroughly.  It is part of my nature and I embrace it...  So I was then bound to stay for an hour and really immerse myself in the exhibition.  I have found before, that if I truly embrace the full experience, I understand more of what is being said.

I learnt that the circular bench, plinth?  I was sat on, was a vital part of the exhibition as it was a resonating seat.  This allows you to truly feel the soundtrack being played, which is a great idea and very effective.  Part of the sound track was low frequency which really meant I could feel it throughout my body and it very much felt like a buzz, like all the hairs on my skin were vibrating, like a gentl massage.

I sat there and thought about my relationship with sound...  and how glad I was that I was here this year and not the same time last year.

I think hearing is one of those things, we assume we all hear the same, we either hear, or we don't.  We are aware of variations in how people see, more than we are hearing.  There is a huge variation in how we hear though and it is only now after far too many decade that I have started to understand that I hear a little differently from some other people.

My history of ear issues began young.  Endless ear infections, a perforated ear drum or two.  One year, one ear was so bad I felt like I could hear nothing.  When I was tested though, they found my hearing in that ear was perfectly normal.  So they tested the other ear.  They discovered I have exceptionally good hearing and told me that the hearing loss would make it feel like I could hear nothing, because of what I was used to.

This started me thinking a lot about hearing.  I had always assume my hearing as bad because I had trouble in a lot of situations.  I learnt that my problem was actually that my hearing was really good and I just couldn't separate all the noises from each other.  So in a busy place, with a lot of background noise, I find myself supplementing a lot with lip reading to work out exactly what words those sounds are trying to be.

This time last year my ear was newly perforated with a substantial hole that was still not closed at the end of last year.  This very much affects how I hear and sounds can be painful.  It is definitely important to avoid loud noises when you have a perforated ear drum.  You don't want to further and permanently damage your hearing.  I already have a fair bit of tinnitus.  If I sit and listen to the song of my ears, there are different sounds with different positions, not just right or left.  Some are intermittent, coming and going.  One sounds like a bad contact, continuously fizzing out.

Low vibrations are ones that so many of us have difficulty hearing, so when we want to experience them, they are often played quite loud.

Sitting on that vibrating seat, I become aware that I perhaps could not have stayed in this room for one minute, this time last year.  It would have been pretty uncomfortable and potentially damaging.  I had not read enough of the description before going, I had not thought about it enough.  I got lucky.  It's so easy to make assumptions that our needs will be met.  I don't think about my own needs enough.  

It was fine though, it's this year, not last year.  I have been lucky and my ear drum has grown back.  Next time I damage my ears though, it will have to be a question I ask myself when visiting places.  I must not forget this.  I perhaps hear more of these low vibrations than a lot of people on a normal day.

Once I got beyond my own personal reaction, I started looking more at my surroundings.  The circular seat was surrounded by nine art works, photograms.  These were made by exposing light sensitive paper to sound and light and the same time.  Each one had been exposed to a difference frequency and had had different things placed on it.

On the back of each piece there were notes about the subjects Libita felt connected to each frequency.  In the leaflet, I could see each works frequency as well as a certain attributes, such as a place, a mineral or some sort of story as well as a part of the body.

From here I wandered the other artworks.  The first was a series of A4 sheets documenting the vocal score of the soundscape.  By this I mean the verbal noises of it, not the spoken words that occurred occasionally.  The verbal score was interesting but impenetrable to me....  I would have liked the spoken words clips somewhere too.  Some of them were really interesting thoughts that I could not revisit without waiting another hour.

Perhaps I should backtrack to the beginning of the exhibition, not my beginning with it.  This artist is of mixed Cornish and Namibian descent.  She is of this land but often in a position to feel a disharmony in living here.  This exhibition explores her connection to this land and she runs workshops, working with other women, all identifying as black or brown, all artists.  In these workshops they walk and connect with the landscapes of West Penwith.  From experiencing the exhibition, it's clear that this is not just about identity, but a deep spirituality.

This was very much represented in the large photograph featuring the feet of women in the grass.

Then there were smaller photographs, clustered.  These featured her group in the landscapes of West Penwith often interacting with ancient sites, beloved of historians, archaeologists and those seeking a spiritual connection.  As I looked at these photos, all black and white, I could see that delicate washes of colour had been added in places, to some of the photos.  Lines of white correction fluid had also been added.  I assumed the colour added auras and the lines showed energetic paths, connections.  I assume these were the results of the spiritual work the group was doing at the time the photos was taken...  A visual representation of their spiritual connection.

The final two works were stunning. Two banners hanging down.  Created using cyanotype which is a slow reacting photographic technique producing blue and white images in reaction to the light.  These had been developed in both Cornwall and Namibia.  Different smaller images had been placed on the larger banner so that in places there was a patchwork effect.

At the far end of the room was a dark space given over to the circular seat and the ring of photograms, in all their splotchy abstract glory.  Walking around the room, the soundscape was ever present.  It felt like resonance came in to affect and some of the vibrations were amplified in certain places.  The different parts of the soundscape were being played in different parts of the room I think.  

I found some of the things said fascinating and would like to have replayed them, to get the thought more precisely.  For instance a voice talking about how their body was not adapted for this landscape, they need more heat, more fire.  I get this, Cornwall is damp, it isn't to everyone's taste, this weather.

So having looked at everything and returned to the seat to listen to the final minutes of the soundscape, I am clear that this exploration is not just about racial differences, it's about profound spiritual connection.  I don't care what you call it, new age, pagan, even Christian for so many spiritual practices are just as routed in Christianity as any other faith.  I think one thing we should be aware of though, is that many spiritual practices are about shifting consciousness, even things like prayer, not just mediation and deeper journeying and visualisation.  Some of these things, science is starting to catch up to, but we do not fully understand them.

I think I started the soundscape near the beginning, because it started to build and became really intense and then there is a voice, praying I think and talk of ancestors.  And I realise, I feel...  altered.  Its beyond the gentle feel of a massage I experienced at the beginning.  And the photograms, I am not experiencing them in quite the same way I was.

I get to the end of my hour and I leave and I feel very ungrounded, a little spacey.  I walk the back way, quieter, fewer people.  I enjoy looking at the sea...  and then I buy some food and eat.

Then I start to feel a little irritated, because I didn't sign up for so much of what I experienced.  It's not the fault of the artist that I am probably more sensitive to some of these sounds than the average person, in ways they would not have necessarily expected.  The power of low frequencies should not be underestimated though, it is a subject for research these days, how they affect our body.  And many other cultures have long exploited them to shift consciousness, we may have forgotten.  I may have forgotten it today.

This was not just an exhibition that explored spirituality through art, that expressed something and tried to communicate.  It was an actual spiritual experience wrapped in art, sat there for any one to stumble in to and directly experience.  I think it's like going to a party and discovering it's a marketing event for a timeshare or being invited to a nice friendly group meeting and discovering it's a local church group.  Its that feeling of getting a little more than you bargained for.  As an AuDHD person, I know I don't particularly like that.  I am after all, the sort of person who researches every new venue I visit, down to where the front door is and what it looks like, I like to know where I am going, what I am doing.  I am not big on uncertainty and surprises.

On the other hand, I am all for developing spirituality in ourselves, whatever the form our personal journey looks like.  I applaud Libita for successfully bringing this in to an art gallery, that's a feat, a real display of skill.  

I guess it's a reminder to me to, that when you go to an exhibition and really immerse yourself in experiencing it, you don't know exactly what you are opening yourself up to.  You really need to trust the artist and the gallery you are visiting.  Displays of fine art, sculptures and paintings...  other beautiful things are generally pretty safe.  The more though, that I explore contemporary art, I understand that it is not aiming for safety, it wants to think dangerous thoughts, it wants us to experience something, even if it sucks us dry and exhausts us in the process.

I also have no idea what Zed Love is, beyond a name given to the frequency 120Hz, which was also assigned to the throat.