Bridget Chappell (aka Hextape) is an award-winning artist based in ‘Australia’ working across raves, cello, literature, and technology. Her albums ‘>:)’ (about the muscality of MRIs, Powertrip, 2022), ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ (about the eponymous film and franchise, Anterograde, 2019) and ‘Undertow’ (about the colonisation of Narrm’s waterways, Heavy Machinery Records, 2020) received critical acclaim. Her first film, ‘The water keeps running even when you turn your back on it’, about the Great Artesian Basin, premiered in 2022 through Arts House, where she was a 2021 resident of the 2021 Makeshift Publics program. Solo exhibitions include ‘I was in a long dark tunnel’ (Audio Foundation, Tamaki Makaurau, 2023) and ‘No Comment’ (Blindside/Liquid Architecture, Narrm, 2021). Rave sites she’s organised in include a Ghan train station, a decommissioned deep space telescope, an underground drain, a wheat silo. She has been artist in residence at Fremantle Arts Centre, Bogong Centre for Sound Culture, Testing Grounds, Frontyard, Cool Change Contemporary. Her writing has been published in Disclaimer, Fine Print, un, Verve, and elsewhere; her zines are available in sharehouse toilets throughout the continent, aided by a bootlegging operation in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.
At the core of her practice is a lot of cold call emails, trespass, and larping as a scientist: data sonification, 3D sound modelling, live coding, siren phase cancellation, etc. She has worked with young musicians behind bars, in remote communities, and in universities. Her work has been commissioned by Darebin Arts Centre, the City of Melbourne, Audio Foundation, Liquid Architecture, Murray Art Museum Albury, unProjects, and others. A collaborator called her "the Bear Grylls of critical theory” ~____~
Press:
’Premiere: >:)’ (Verve Zine) \ ’Illicit Transmission Ambiguous Encounter’ (un Projects) \ ‘The Sound of History’ (ABC Radio National) \ ‘Interview with Teether & Hextape’ (Verve) \ ‘No Comment: Coda’ (Disclaimer) \ ‘Premiere: Hextape - Revenge (Gabber Modus Operandi remix) (Inverted Audio) \ ‘Bridget Chappell ensures “Undertow” makes sense beyond the banks of the Birraranga’ (Broader Lines) \ ‘Premiere: Toyota’ (Weirdo Wasteland) \ ‘Local Heroes: Bridget Chappell, founder of Melbourne Sound School’ (A City Made By People) \ ‘Six Artists Using Korg’ (Noisegate)
