Projects & Collaborations

Enid is a collective of artists, musicians and sound engineers led by academic and multi-instrumentalist Laura Lee (Parachute for Gordo). This exhibition brings together technical and artistic innovation, Laura’s unique approach to music and Karina Fraser’s vivid and evocative paintings.

As an artifact itself, Enid’s Yes! is an album produced during a single live performance as Laura Lee’s ethereal, fractured soundscapes combine with James Wright’s live studio manipulation, structured and punctuated by Mark Glaister’s tripped out percussion. Musicians and engineer form a single unit as live performance is simultaneously affected, recorded and mixed as the music itself is produced. The result is a dizzying mix of textures and influences, alternately calm and frantic, reflective and boundlessly explorative. Every vinyl pressing of the record is unique, with a pressing of dub plates from Berlin. 

For the exhibition, Laura is joined by synaesthetic artist Karina Fraser as she presents stunning new paintings in response to and inspired by the Enid project at all stages of development. Oil paint, a traditional medium, has been pushed beyond the technical abilities of what is deemed possible, recommended or usual. This echoes the context of Yes! using pedals, speakers, and studio effects to create an entirely different sound to that of the instruments in their purest state. The pigment takes its own form, running across the canvas and splitting as the solvent evaporates, leaving pigment traces where they lie.

Yes! by Enid, the album, a film of the original performance and art exhibition has been displayed at University of the Creative Arts, Surrey, Aldershot's West End Centre and South Hill Park, Bracknell with a limited run of vinyls through Not Clean records.

Collecting Pl4ces, a project by Forward 4 Wiz Trust with Arts Council National Lottery Project funding focused on creating a catalogue of impulse responses within buildings of heritage within Rushmoor. Musicians and sound designers were invited to use these impulse responses within their own work to build an eclectic compilation as a snapshot of creativity within the borough using it's aviation, military and engineering heritage.

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Several performances took place in the venues; West End Centre, The Rooms Rehearsal Studios, Smith-Dorrien House, Maida Gym and Farnborough Centrifuge with musicians Bananafish, Jamie Lenman, huske monde, Akira Sileas and Hannah Lou Clark writing for and performing in the spaces. The compilation record was released in February 2023 at an audio exhibition and film screening at Aldershot's West End Centre.

As the world began to reopen between covid lockdowns, Rushmoor Borough Council commissioned several artists to produce works relating to buildings of heritage within the borough for the inaugural heritage trail. Karina created works relating to Rushmoor's musical heritage on the site of Aldershot's first music hall in the 1800s which later became the go-to Saturday haunt of a secondhand record shop. Works focused on Rushmoor cult bands Mega City Four, Reuben and Hundred Reasons, who broke into the mainstream from the hotbed of talent that Farnborough represented in the 80s-00s.

Parachute For Gordo have been long-time collaborators with Karina, producing work that fits to their math rock soundscapes, 15 minute epics and the odd musical curve ball. Karina painted the cover for the album 10 seconds per second per second, has painted live at their shows and has even appeared squeezed into a sweaty goat mask in one of their music videos.

In the spring climbing season of 2019, Karina travelled to Nepal to trek the Annapurna Circuit sketchbook in hand. The trip was crowdfunded by the kind supporters and collectors of Karina's work, many commissioning artwork for completion during the trek. The month long trip was life changing, fully blogged and grew a supporter base like no other. Battling snow, freezing temperatures and thin air at altitudes of up to 18,000 ft this was certainly no holiday, it demanded and delivered personal growth and physical fitness. During her time in Nepal, Karina also visited Raksha Nepal, a charity that rescues, homes and educates young girls that have experienced extremes of sexual and violent abuse. Here she ran art workshops and learnt value like no other. 

Frustrated that the huge creative talent pool within Rushmoor was largely being ignored by funders despite the borough being identified as a location of least engagement and participation within the UK, Karina curated the cross-disciplinary arts festival with Forward 4 Wiz Trust at Aldershot's West End Centre in Nov 2019. The event, well attended and well received, showcased music, visual art, performance and live art, poetry, film and av experiences created right in the locale. Click below for the video of the event.