Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S)

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S), The Only Good System Is a Soundsystem, 2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S), The Only Good System Is a Soundsystem, 2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S), The Only Good System Is a Soundsystem, 2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S), The Only Good System Is a Soundsystem, 2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

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Black Obsidian Sound System was established in the summer of 2018 with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans and non-binary black and people of colour involved in art, sound and radical activism. Following in the legacies of sound system culture they wanted to learn, build and sustain a resource for our collective struggles. The system, based in London, is available to use or rent by community groups and others with the purpose of amplifying and connecting them.

Project Description

Black Obsidian Sound System present a newly commissioned audio-visual installation at FACT Liverpool. An immersive environment, combining film, light, a sound score and sculpture, the work is an extension of a new short film project A Collective Hum (2019) by B.O.S.S, commissioned by LUX. Weaving together archival images, the installation reflects the ways in which marginalised groups have developed methods of coming together against a background of repression and discrimination in the UK – positioning sound culture as spaces of collective strength and encounter where kinship is found and reciprocated. Grounded in their interest in sound systems, Black Obsidian Sound System consider the speaker as a totem for creating a sacred space, where one can be moved and experience collective pleasure and healing.

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial with support from The Ampersand Foundation.

Our full exhibition programme is now closed, but visitors can still enjoy art in person at FACT and Bluecoat until August & September. Plan your visit here.