Susan Philipsz was born in Glasgow in 1965. She trained as a sculptor, having received her BFA in sculpture from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1993, and her MFA from the University of Ulster, Belfast, in 1994. Philipsz still considers herself a sculptor today, though her materials are time and space rather than marble or plaster. Her sole instrument is now the human voice. Using public address systems in places such as San Antonio's Greyhound bus station, or under bridges in Glasgow and Munster, Germany, Philipsz broadcasts recordings of herself singing folk or pop songs a cappella. For her, the transition from sculptor to singer made sense. "It's all about how the emotive and psychological effects of sound can heighten your awareness of the space you are in," she told the Observer in November 2010. "It felt like a very natural progression to go from sculpture to sound."¹ Philipsz made her first sound work in 1994, when she was in school in Belfast. Titled Safe, it was a rendition of a lullaby from the opera Hansel and Gretel, which she played down a chimney in a former retirement home. But Philipsz's breakthrough moment came in 2000, when she was invited to contribute a piece to the international exhibition Manifesta 3, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She recorded a version of the old socialist anthem "The Internationale" and played it under a public walkway. Sung in a neutral voice by Philipsz, it became ambiguous whether the song was meant as a call to action or nostalgia for the past before Slovenia seceded from the Communist nation of Yugoslavia in 1991. Philipsz has since realized the power of old and often forgotten songs by transmitting them in dozens of settings. Philipsz won the Turner Prize in 2010. Her work has been installed in solo exhibitions at the following institutions: ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2008); Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2010); and IHME Project 2010, for the Pro Arte Foundation, Helsinki (2010). She has also created the following commissions: Carried by Winds for the Radcliffe Observatory, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (2008–09); Appear to Me (Hazte ver) at the Silo Monastery, Burgos, Spain (curated by Lynne Cooke and commissioned by Museo nacional centro de arte Reina Sofía) (2009); and Lowlands for the Glasgow International (2010). Her work has been featured in the multiple group exhibitions, including Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), to which Philipsz contributed a piece commissioned especially for the exhibition, as well as those at Tate Britain, London (2010); Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis (2009); and the Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008). 1. Lena Corner, "The Art of Noise: 'Sculptor in Sound' Susan Philipsz," Observer, November 14, 2010. Retrieved on November 20, 2010.