Record by Ray Fenwick
As part of the 2026 STEPS Public Art Residency, Ray Fenwick, an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, anonymously sent 100 copies of Record across Canada, into thrift stores, garage sales, free bins, and other places where they might be found by someone who isn’t looking for an artwork.
Project at a glance
Location: Across Canada
Artists: Ray Fenwick
Documentarians: TBD
Year: 2026
Services: Artist Capacity Building
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artist-in-residence
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record
100
copies distributed
About Record by Ray Fenwick
The Voyager Golden Record was sent into space in 1977. On it, a sound collage titled The Sounds of Earth intended to catalogue our planet through its sounds. Ray Fenwick’s Record will not be sent into space. Instead, 100 copies will be quietly seeded across Canada, into personal record collections, thrift stores, garage sales, free bins, and other places where they might be found by someone who isn’t looking for an artwork.
The transparent seven-inch vinyl record contains a five-minute sound collage: a taxonomy of sounds made by a single human voice, beginning with breath and gradually moving towards communicative language. These sounds form an archive of one voice without revealing anything personal about the creator. On the label, a list of the sounds in the order they appear, with no attribution of any kind.
Record will not be sold, traded or given directly, relying instead on chance and circumstance to find its audience. In this way, the project proposes an experimental form of public art—one that does not ask an audience to gather in a designated place, or even to know that they are encountering an artwork. At the moment it is discovered and played, the work becomes a simple one-to-one communication: one voice, unexpectedly encountered by another.
“I’ve had this vinyl record project in mind for quite a few years, but never found the right organization or gallery to partner with. STEPS had the vision to treat it as a public artwork and made something I’ve long thought about into a reality…The encouragement and support STEPS provided was invaluable. They made a difficult project to realize seem simple and were enthusiastic, which helps keep the momentum.”
About the Artist
Ray Fenwick
Ray Fenwick is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As an illustrator he has created lettering, illustration and repeat patterns for The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Nike, Chronicle Books and many others. He has spoken about his work at universities and conferences in both Canada and the United States. As an author he had two experimental graphic novels published by acclaimed publisher Fantagraphics. As an interdisciplinary fine artist working in video, installation, performance, painting and animation he has exhibited, performed, and screened work in both Canada and the U.S. He has spoken about his work at galleries, conferences and universities in both countries.
Funders
The 2026 STEPS Public Art Residency is made possible by support from TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment.
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