Martin Riches

Martin Riches (Isle of Wight, UK, 1942), having studied architecture in London, he moved to West Berlin in 1969 where he was slowly drawn into the thriving arts scene. This resulted in his first exhibition: Objekte Texte Kompositionen, (Haus am Kleistpark, 1973), accompanying a concert series given by flautist Eberhard Blum and speaker Helmut Krauss. This set the pattern for further collaborations with musicians, composers and voice artists including Tom Johnson (since 1983), Charles Boone, Philip Corner, Suguru Goto, Aleksander Kolkowski, Makiko Nishikaze, Roland Pfengle, Steffen Schleiermacher, Adachi Tomomi, Schaun Tozer, Ute Wasserman and Caroline Wilkins.

He is best known as a pioneer of the Berlin Sound Art scene for his automatic musical
instruments and installations and for his experiments in mechanical speech synthesis, notably his Talking Machine (1989-92). His work is noted for its clarity of function, elegance and precision. His other interests - including a passion for making clocks - are often infiltrated into his art shows.

His projects have been shown at the ICA and the British Museum in London; at the Deutsche Museum in Munich; at Kiasma in Helsinki; the New York Hall of Science; at the ICC and the University of Tokyo; the Musée de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Museo Egizio in Turin; the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe; the Saarland Clock Museum; the Galerie Gianozzo and Singuhr Galerie in Berlin and elsewhere throughout Western Europe and in Japan.