By: Chieloka Anadu
For Nancy Trueman, art is not something to be looked at, it is something to be felt. As an artist and sound practitioner, Nancy treats sound as a physical material, sculpting it to fill the voids of a room. Her practice is an exploration of resonance, silence, and what she calls “embodied listening,” transforming gallery and architectural spaces into immersive environments that demand a different kind of attention.
While many artists work with pigment or clay, Nancy works with the invisible. Her primary tools are alchemy crystal singing bowls and nickel silver gongs. These instruments are chosen for their harmonic richness and their ability to “sculpt” the air within a space.
By utilizing the simplicity of these tools, Nancy ensures the focus remains entirely on the spatial experience. Her site-responsive performances are designed to alter the viewer’s perception, creating subtle, tectonic shifts in how we experience the passage of time. Under her guidance, a room is no longer just a container; it becomes a resonant body.
Nancy’s work is deeply aligned with the philosophy of Deep Listening. She finds kinship in artists and composers who prioritise restraint and atmosphere, most notably Max Richter and his durational masterpiece, Sleep.
Her inspiration is drawn from environments that invite slowness: the hushed stillness of a forest, the vastness of travel, and the intentionality of somatic movement. Her practice is an invitation to exit the “noise” of the modern world and enter a state of presence. It is art that functions as an architectural intervention, using sound to redraw the boundaries of the physical world.
In a practice so focused on the ethereal nature of sound, Nancy finds her grounding in the physical. When faced with a lack of inspiration, she doesn’t look to the instruments, but to her own breath.
“I return to my body through yoga, breath-work, and hiking,” she explains. For Nancy, stepping away is not a break from the process, it is the process. Time spent in nature allows her to recalibrate her own internal frequency, ensuring that when she returns to the gongs, she is bringing a true sense of stillness with her.
If Nancy’s immersive soundscapes could speak, their message would be a radical departure from our fast-paced reality. They would offer a simple, two-word directive: “Slow down. Listen.” This is not just a request for silence, but a call to notice the vibrations that exist beneath the surface of our daily lives. Her work asks the viewer to stop being a passive observer and to start being an active participant in the space.
Participating in the Blossom exhibition represents a unique intersection for Nancy. It is an opportunity to reposition sound within a visual art context, proving that the ear can “see” as much as the eye.
For her, Blossom is a shared exploration of emergence and collective presence. By bringing her gongs and crystal bowls into the gallery, she adds a layer of sonic growth to the exhibition, reminding us that transformation often begins with the quietest of vibrations.
Follow Nancy’s Journey on Instagram: @mytruenorthyoga
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