IDEAS of RESONANCE
Building upon the foundations established in Liturgies, Resonance brought painting, handwritten prose, original sound compositions, and live performance together into a single immersive practice. Rather than existing as parallel disciplines, image, language, music, architecture, and performance became interdependent, each contributing to the emotional and conceptual experience of the work. The project explored how meaning is not communicated through a single medium, but instead emerges through the resonance created between many voices, forms, and encounters.
Central to Resonance was the transformation of language from a private act of writing into a shared, performative experience. During a six-month self-directed research residency at Saint Mary's University, supported by an Arts Nova Scotia Create Grant in 2022, Webb engaged in open-ended conversations with students, faculty, and staff. Rather than conducting formal interviews, these agenda-less encounters became the catalyst for a growing body of fragmented prose exploring memory, mortality, belonging, love, and the search for meaning. The writings were never intended as exhibition text or explanation; instead, they became an essential material within the work itself.
Performed by actors, musicians, collaborators, and Webb himself, the prose moved from the page into physical space, where multiple voices inhabited the same text, transforming individual fragments into a collective experience. These performances did not illustrate the paintings; rather, they expanded them, inviting audiences to experience the work through listening as much as seeing. Combined with original sound compositions for multiple instruments and spoken voice, painting, language, music, and performance became inseparable, creating immersive environments in which no single medium held priority over another.
Presented through exhibitions including Dominus Vobiscum at the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Resonance represents the culmination of Webb's early multidisciplinary practice. It established many of the ideas that continue to shape his work today, including layered voices, fragmented narrative, immersive installation, and the understanding that meaning is constructed through the convergence of multiple forms rather than a single image.
Selected images
“We all experience life and memory in a fragmentary way, which is why we are so desperate to create narratives and impose meaning. But often, it’s the fragments that matter more than the story. It’s the fragments you take home. Dominus Vobiscum was not a show that ended when I left the cathedral. It was an experience I will carry with me, nestled in my mind like a tiny seed.”
