Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Biography

Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985, Amman) is a contemporary artist based in Dubai. His work looks into the political effects of listening, using various kinds of audio to explore its effects on human rights and law. Because of his work with sound, Abu Hamdan has testified as an expert witness in asylum hearings in the United Kingdom. His work has been featured in major group exhibitions, as well as solo exhibitions at Tate Modern, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art or The Showroom, and is included in the collection of several major institutions. He jointly won, with Tai Shani, Oscar Murillo and Helen Cammock, the 2019 Turner Prize for his work based on interviews with former detainees at a Syrian prison. In September 2023, he plans to open Earshot, "the first agency for sound and acoustic analysis dedicated to open-source investigators and the field of human rights."