Mer 1983

Performance in two parts

The first part: Performers speak on any topic; tell stories, speak simultaneously.
Instruction: match the volume and pitch of the other speakers; become louder, but never louder than the person next to you. Chorus duration: 10 mins.
The first part overlapped the second part.
The second part: During the first part (about 7 minutes in), a black silhouette of a seated man is painted onto a nearby wall, framed by an unfocussed light from a 35mm slide projector. The painter sits in his shadow. The slide projector slowly fades to black (as slowly as possible, a secular tenebrae: 3 minutes) – the chorus voices diminish to silence as the room fades to black.

When making this work, I was thinking about communication, language, and how we often fail to understand each other and the world.

Many languages offer distinct structures that convey distinct cultural and spiritual meanings, which may seem generalised and unscientific to Western rationalism, but offer broader understandings, generosity and holistic meanings.

For example, speaking about a tree, for some, requires using verbs that acknowledge its living presence; one such language is an Algonquian language of N. America.

Similarly, the sea has many possible adjectives for beauty, indifference, fear, etc., though it has no verbs, despite being a living, holistic entity that governs life on Earth, a site of multiple meanings with its own rules.

The chorus was at times alive within its own sonic parameters, more than the sum of its parts. The chorus was a precursor work that ultimately led to the Work FILL commissioned for the 8th Biennale of Sydney in 1990.