Enid. Yes!

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.