Bringing China to London

The new sound installation in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall comes tagged with such an impressively communist series of nouns, you almost feel you need to come fully prepped on political theory. Yet China Incidental: Production Consumption Interpretation is more badly dubbed movie than textbook – sit next to one of its six speakers and watch the South Bank crowds and you’ll have the eerie experience of seeing a film overlaid with the wrong soundtrack.

Standing like sentries in a row against one wall, six speakers are divided into pairs, one for each theme. Sounds of everyday life in China can be heard up close, while sitting at the tidemark between speaker pairs brings dissonance. Where Production and Consumption overlap, machinery clanks into the left ear and vacuous ad jingles purr into the right.

It’s an attempt to document the changing soundscape of a country undergoing rapid modernisation but China Incidental draws attention to the way we edit our hearing in a busy public space. Chatting diners sip coffees against a rhythm of metalworkers; browsers peruse the gift shop surrounded by an ominous hum. It’s a strange combination of meditation and sensory overload. Oblivious, a group of Spanish girls sat next to Consumption, dipping plastic spoons into their yoghurts.

It may be an installation of sounds but it’s also testament to our skill of not listening.

Until Mon, 10am to 11pm, free.

China Incidental
Royal Festival Hall