The Busy Mind of Rhiannon Bigham: a love letter to Coventry
Rhiannon Bigham on patterns, post-war architecture and the sounds of the city.
Rhiannon Bigham is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, film, illustration, music and sound design. Her artist name, Visual Sequence, perfectly describes the repetitive patterns she is drawn to in her art.
Rhiannon Bigham at The Elephant Building in Coventry city centre.
Based in Coventry, she has exhibited at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, and last July she played her first solo set at Just Dropped In. Rhiannon has also preformed DJ sets at numerous venues around the city including the LTB Showrooms and Common Ground Café as half of Elle Et Moi duo.
Her latest performance, was a piece for the Herbert Art Gallery used hundreds of samples of sounds found around Coventry to compose the installation. The performance was part of the gallery’s ‘The City is Full of Noises’, Modular Monday series and was a collaboration between Rhiannon and S-AAM as part of the group Natsu.
Growing up in the industrial north of Coventry, her work serves as a love letter to the environment surrounding her. Rhiannon lived between the M6 and what was the Foleshill Gas Works but is now Coventry Building Society Arena.
Rhiannon recounts how the setting for her childhood captures her creativity: “Living next to the M6, you would have the rhythms of the motorway constantly. I've always been a very imaginative person and the environment I lived in was industrial, but it was somewhere you could explore.”
“If I didn’t find beauty in the things around me, it would be a pretty sorry state of affairs.”
The fact that these places might not be aesthetic or inspiring to other people isn’t lost on Rhiannon, she says: “I think you always have love for the place you grow up in. If I didn’t find beauty in the things around me, it would be a pretty sorry state of affairs.”
Adding: “In terms of the style of buildings in Coventry, the modernist architecture follows patterns and sequences, and I've always liked that aspect it.”
When talking about the processes behind her work, Rhiannon describes herself as someone with a ‘butterfly brain’, saying: “Things always merge in my head. If I’m doing an illustration, I might get sounds in my head to go with it, or if I’m doing a piece of music, I will always get colours and images.
“When I am doing a piece of sound design, the way I would describe it is like painting with sounds. There isn’t really any separation between these things for me.”
Starting out, Rhiannon chose to study journalism at university. She was drawn to the course because of the creative freedom it gave her. “I think one of the interesting things about the education system in the UK is that from an early age, you’re told that you need to specialise. You should either be a musician, or an artist, or a writer, but my mind has never worked in that way.
“I think I would find it difficult to focus on just one thing.”
“When I went University, I chose journalism because it gave me a chance to explore lots of areas. From there, I started experimenting with those crossovers.”
Throughout her life, Rhiannon has always been creative, whether that was playing guitar in different bands or photographing the world around her. Part of her personal growth was learning to use and combine these different formats.
“My journey has been realising that it’s okay to use different mediums. I think I would find it difficult to focus on just one thing.”
One of Rhiannon’s greatest inspirations for her art is David Bowie, known for his flamboyant character, it was his sense of performance that she admires most. “His music was fantastic, but it was also the way he could use lyrics and his own appearance to create an image in your mind.
“I think he was also a bit of a butterfly as well; his character would change a lot as he developed. I think, again, seeing other people being able to cross over and do different things, be visual artists, create music and be great lyricists was inspiring to me.”
For most people it can be hard to balance work and home life, but Rhiannon seems to get by juggling a lot more. Beyond just her artwork, she works a fulltime job at Coventry University with the Talent Team and volunteers with Age UK. Her secret to staying afloat is lots of lists.
Rhiannon released her First EP ‘Brume’ in June 2022 with the French record label, ERR REC. The project is made up of four tracks and is inspired by the different states of sea mist. The collection was made using mostly the Lyra 8 and Pulsar 23 analogue synthesisers, which Rhiannon had been experimenting with for a while.
Building on the foundations set by her EP, the audio-visual artist plans to publish a full album, released on vinyl and cassette tape. It will use elements of song together with existing soundscapes to create something new.