The Paravilion

Fabrica’s Making Space ResidencyFabrica is a contemporary art space within a Grade II listed, former regency church in Brighton. As part of the annual programme, Fabrica makes its space available to artists to test new ground in their practice. Fabrica’s July ‘24 Making Space was awarded to artist collective Antivoid Alliance (Grant Cieciura, Caleb Madden, Luke Pendrell, Yumino Seki & Tiago De Sousa).ParasiteA temporary pavilion was built within the walls of Fabrica during the first day of the residency. This space-within-a-space acted as a kind of parallel site, or ‘parasite’. Creatively inspired by the culture, aesthetics, and technical lay-out of the Karaoke room—with its special ability to focus moments of consumer desire and fantastic irony.

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The pavilion insulated karaoke from the main gallery, to emulate the feeling of the karaoke booth as a contained space, facilitating conditions for escapism and performativity.
The insulation boards also acted as a sound barrier between the singer inside the booth and audience outside. Inside the booth, the singer’s voice was unfilterd, whilst the projected sound from the booth to the gallery was “weirded” by isolating the reverb trace of the Karaoke mic. The auditory effect was felt when someone moved between the two spaces and witnessed a shift from karaoke to a reverberating soundscape.
The multilayered experience was designed to create conditions where meaning resists settling.

Ironic resonance
Morgan Quaintance holds the view that ironic resonance (IR) opens up a space for multiple interpretations, compelling audiences to reconsider their assumptions and dig into underlying cultural, political, or social implications within an artwork. IR goes beyond simple irony, where one might merely observe a contrast between expectation and reality; instead, IR creates a “resonance” that lingers, offering layers of meaning that provoke sustained engagement and deeper reflection.
The Paravilion attempts to effect a productive IR by placing karaoke in the church—the juxtaposition evokes both a clash and a dialogue between past and present. This setup taps into the spectral infrastructures of communal voice and tradition, suggesting a complex relationship between modern entertainment and folk traditions once central to community identity. This alignment—where secular, commercial karaoke meets the spiritual setting of a church—produces a powerful “frisson,” or aesthetic thrill, by merging seemingly incompatible cultural symbols. With The Paravilion, Antivoid Alliance employ IR as a method for engaging with the layered historical and cultural meanings inherent in both karaoke and the church setting.
Recognising that residual cultures exist beneath the surface of modern activities like karaoke, provides an insight into why modern practices like this are successful. It shows an awareness of how these infrastructures, though masked by modern consumer practices, still subtly shape our social and cultural lives. Despite the narcissistic individualism inherent in the Western pop song, karaoke facilitates moments of social liberation. When we sing in this setting, we come together to celebrate the dropping of guard and ambition. A dissolution into the social group. In taking a space known for spiritual gatherings and placing within it a modern, secular counterpart that serves a similar human need for connection, The Paravilion exposes the deeper roots of our cultural and emotional heritage.
It’s the idea of reclaiming the spiritual back from the monetised and the star systemLiz Whitehead (C0-Director, Fabrica)

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