MALCONTENT : GREG MALCOLM. 22 MARCH - 8 APRIL, 2006






Malcontent is a collection of conceptual and sound works by Greg Malcolm that explore the relationship between visual arts and its poorer cousin sound. Numerous occasions have illustrated the predominance of the visual. Malcolm recalls one particular example when a house on the Sumner esplanade played a recording of screaming and squawking seagulls at high volume as to deter seagulls from sitting on their roof and creating their abstract expressionism shit paintings on the black surface of the roof. The extreme annoyance of the noise was considered more desirable than a slight visual blemish. This was a topic for a video piece that was never made. Leave the shit on the roof but get it out of my ears. In this collection of work Malcolm will turn some seminal sound art works into visual equivalents as well as creating works that deal with sound and sound based experiences. Malcontent will contain experimental (in the true sense of the word) video, travel photography and customer designed art. Numerous works in Malcontent were initially led by misunderstanding. Sometimes the mistakes lead you to the most fertile ground. This approach is also mined in his live sound performances.


Greg Malcolm toured Europe to promote his CD Homesick for Nowhere Nov 2003 - Jan 2004 and two years later to promote Swimming in It Nov 2005 to Dec 2005. On these occasions Malcolm performed over 40 concerts and participated in numerous international new music festivals including Belgium’s Pauze Festival 2005, ‘Densites Festival in France 2005, Full Pull festival in Sweden as well as participating in an Artist in Residency recording project November 2005 with Tetuzi Akiyama in Njmegen Holland. Malcolm also performs throughout New Zealand in many not so appropriate venues collecting customer feedback and gaining a huge repertoire of double-edged compliments, "You’ve got a lot of guts". "Well that was definitely different". "Certainly creative" as well the less encouraging "Stop singing, stop living, stop playing".


In 2000 he released What is it Keith? and in 1995 Trust Only This Face. These were innovative, challenging, and thought provoking releases, that explored the sensationalism of the media, art ethics, the universal standard of taste, and the influence of the media in New Zealand society. What is it Keith? was recorded when Malcolm was based in Berlin for 2 years in 1998. Both of these CDs contain many concepts, which Malcolm believes may have been missed because sound and music generally exist only in the realm of entertainment. ‘With sound it seems the more vacuous the better. What is it Keith? is my worst seller and personal favourite. It’s a CD that is saturated in ideas and exists on many levels’.
‘Greg Malcolm’s adapted guitar solos represent a valuable extension of the language of acoustic playing’ and ends with ‘By chance exploration and invention, Malcolm has introduced a poetic new vocabulary into the lexicon of acoustic guitar playing,’ The Wire February 2006 Edwin Pouncey.