Wajid is a Manchester-born, Haringey-based artist whose work draws on an inter-disciplinary approach to develop sound-based works encompassing installations, live performances, acousmatic music, graphic scores, and sound sculptures. His work has been exhibited and performed at the ICA Gallery, Arnolfini, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Whitechapel Gallery, Laban, and the Freud Museum.
How long have you worked in Haringey, and in which part of the borough do you work?
I’ve lived and worked in Haringey for the last 12 years and Modus Arts, the organisation I run, has been operating administratively from the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham for the last two years.
As a creative and activist, how has Haringey influenced you?
I live right by Markfield Park and can see both my son’s school and the River Lea from our balcony. There’s something meaningful in that - maybe something to do with how they both represent time and flow. I see the vibrant and wide diversity of identities that Londoners are familiar with right on my doorstep, and that associated implication of comfortably being yourself or finding yourself, which I think is at the heart of any big city. I’m originally from a small town on the outskirts of Manchester, and moved to London when I was 18. Both of my parents migrated from Pakistan to the UK in the 1960s, so my geographical identity is now primarily that of a Londoner with northern roots, and then as a Brit with Pakistani heritage. We all inhabit multiple identities of course, whether that’s along lines of class, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, musical heritage, creative disciplines, and/or aural diversity - which is a field I’m increasingly interested in as a sound artist. London and notably diverse areas like Haringey allow for these multiple aspects of identity to manifest, and they influence me daily.
What is your definition of a rebel?
Rebellion takes different forms, of course, and I’ve always been attracted to rebels that invert obvious notions of rebellion - outsiders in an outsider’s world, if that makes sense. The writer Jean Genet springs to mind, even George Clinton’s Funkadelic line of ‘Freedom is free of the need to be free’ (on the ‘Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow’ album) - the idea of being unrestrained from the limits of the self, feeds into that. The concept of a rebel in this framing allows for ordinary and pedestrian acts to be potentially rebellious. You don’t need to look like a rebel to be a rebel.
What’s the best careers advice you’ve received?
I played bass in a band years ago, and I remember being chastised by the band leader after causing an unnecessary and inappropriately timed ruckus in the corridors of a hotel whilst on tour in New Zealand - “there’s a time and place for everything - and now isn’t it!”, he said. It felt like a proper telling off, and I felt sheepishly humbled. The key message I took from it was to use my energies wisely - find the right time, place, and, importantly, the right audience, for impact.
When and where do you feel at your most powerful?
When I’m talking in front of a crowd of people about one of my projects. It’s a strange inversion of the crippling public speaking anxiety I used to have for years, but I now feel deeply empowered by situations like that, where I can share my ideas and work, and explicitly or implicitly convey my deeply held belief in the power of sound as an extraordinary emotional carrier.
What would be a dream contribution to Haringey’s year as the London Borough of Culture?
Any one of Modus Art’s projects would be a dream contribution! It could be one of our Text-Sound-Art pieces, which is a multi-speaker diffusion project where we collaborate with poets and present a selection of their poems in a circle of eight speakers. Alternatively, it could be the Foley Nights project, where attendees create real-time Foley (live sound effects) for a selection of film clips. It’s not well known outside of sound design circles, but Hollywood tyre screeches are created by rubbing a hot-water bottle on a table, or the sound of footsteps in snow is made by using cornflour in a cloth bag! We could also deliver the SoundHoppers project which is a deep-listening and sound exploration workshop for children aged 5-11 years old, encouraging them to explore creative possibilities with sound beyond making music. As you may have gathered - we think the creative possibilities with sound are endless!
What is your favourite hidden Haringey gem?
For me, it’s New River Studios in the Haringey Warehouse District. It’s a multi-arts space - recording studio, rehearsals spaces, performance space etc but it’s the music venue that I’m mainly there for. It has a capacity for about 80 people so it’s super small but it has exactly the kind of intimacy I prefer in a venue where you can get really up and close to performers. I’ve seem a number of extraordinary performances in that space, from incredibly challenging harsh wall noise artists to extremely minimalist performances to insane musical virtuosity. It’s exactly my kind of place. They also serve Neapolitan-style pizzas and craft beers - perfect combo!
Which other Haringey creative would you spotlight and why?
I’m really impressed with the work ethic of Malene Oddershede Bach who is the founder of MOB Studio and runs the Markfield Road festival and the newly opened Old Nursery on Tottenham Green, alongside about a million other things. I really love her dedication and approach to providing space for artists and craft makers to present work, and I think she’s a superb facilitator. We’re looking to present another one of our projects at the Old Nursery pretty soon, called Sandbox, which is a platform for sound artists to share and discuss their work in front of other sound artists and those interested in the field. It’s essentially a sort of scratch event, and it’s unashamedly nerdy! The next one will be led by the artist Sabine Moore who will be sharing her work on sonifying plants and mushrooms.
Modus Arts draws on interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to developing public-facing sound-based artworks and events, encompassing installations, live performances, acousmatic musics, sound sculpture, sound archives, oral histories, and workshops. Find out more on their website.
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