Other. Absence & Making Public brings together sound, moving image and research work by Florence To that explores how perception is shaped by vibration, frequency and the environments we move through. Influenced by the avian syrinx, the vocal organ through which birds produce sound, the programme extends the artist’s longstanding interest in vocalisation: what began as an interest in how sound is produced through contact with air and material has developed into a wider enquiry into movement and perception.
Recent fieldwork in Palestine follows the movement of vultures through changing atmospheric conditions, alongside conservation practices and the technologies used to track them. These movements take place within airspace and landscapes also shaped by systems of surveillance, monitoring and territorial control.
Through traversing field observations, recordings, and gathered material, the work considers what technical systems can detect and make visible, what they overlook, and how human and more-than-human lives encounter the same environments differently. Across the gallery, sculptures, moving images and field recordings draw attention to what can be heard, sensed and recorded, what becomes publicly visible, and what remains absent.
Date: 25 September – 7 November 2026
Open hours: Wed – Sat, 11am – 5pm
Address: Bloc Projects, 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB
FREE Entry
Launch event: Friday, 25 September, 6 – 8pm
Other. Absence & Making Public is part of ESEA Futures, an initiative by Bloc Projects and Platform Asia that aims to inspire critical thinking about contemporary East and Southeast Asian art and culture.
Accompanying events programme:
TYRYX by Florence To
Sat 10 October, 5–6pm, Bloc Projects
£5
Click here to get your tickets
A live immersive performance by the artist in which synthesised control signals activate the sculptures within the exhibition. Presented in collaboration with No Bounds Festival.
All & Nothing — Film Screening
Tue 3 November, 6pm, Showroom Cinema
£12
Click here to get your tickets
A documentary by Liao I-ling and Chu Po-Ying exploring the life of the late conceptual artist Li Yuan-chia, tracing his journey from wartime China and Taiwan to establishing the L.Y.C. Museum in Cumbria.
Florence To is an artist, researcher and director of Hong Kong diasporic heritage, creating acoustic scenographies and audiovisual installations with an emphasis on architectural spatial design. They specialised in textiles and tailoring for five years before combining their skills with digital and computational technologies to create installations in abandoned and disused spaces, utilising their defects. They have established residencies and commissions with the Berliner Festspiele, STRP Eindhoven, Mass MoCA in Massachusetts, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) in New York and The Spatialization and Auditory Display Environment [SpADE] in Limerick. Florence’s creative endeavours are founded on the significance of listening as a valuable tool for aligning with and establishing deeper connections with the worlds we occupy, particularly during a period of ecological upheaval.
