DESCENDING NOTES/LIKE RAIN IN THE ABYSS is a new solo exhibition by Lou Lou Sainsbury, expanding on her Freelands Gasworks Partnership Programme film commission descending notes (2022).

Comprising video installation, sound sculpture, scent, poetry and drawing, Lou Lou Sainsbury presents an expanded remix of her erotic science-fiction film descending notes (2022). Exploring transness as a form of resonance, the installation takes its inspiration from Donny Hathaway’s heartfelt rendition of A Song for You, whose lyrics are punctuated by a discordant progression of piano notes: “If my words don’t come together, listen to the melody ‘cause my love is in there hiding… I love you in a place where there's no space or time.”

Written and performed with Ada M. Patterson and Raffia Li, the film is a cosmic love story between three transing beings whose desire unfolds across time and space, from the sensuality of early Christian sainthoods to future alien intimacies. Scattered with off-cuts, poetry and sonic elements, the installation is permeated by ‘Fowelley’s Scent’, a newly-commissioned collaboration with the artist Gabi Dao & PPLS Perfume. Based on the pollinating erotics of the film, the desirous scent of the more-than-human saint lingers as trans atmosphere, an alien transmission of troubled entanglements within mist, wet forests, sea air, acid rain and engine exhaust. A cloud that bites, just delicious.

Grounded in autobiographical experiences of tenderness, solidarity and grief within Sainsbury’s friendships and everyday life; DESCENDING NOTES/LIKE RAIN IN THE ABYSS remixes a sensual poetics for after the end of the world when the body has no end. As the world splits apart, these undercover beings covertly learn to live in transformation and to give each other breath.

A new live-performance by Lou Lou Sainsbury will be presented on the 11th February with an afterparty.

descending notes was initially commissioned by Gasworks, with generous support from the Freelands Foundation.

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