I am the substance and the one who has no substance.
16 channel sound installation.
The Thunder: Perfect Mind - translated by George W. MacRea
Narrated by Jennifer Sodini
Music: Entr'acte by Caroline Shaw, performed by the Attacca Quartet
16 channel sound installation.
The Thunder: Perfect Mind - translated by George W. MacRea
Narrated by Jennifer Sodini
Music: Entr'acte by Caroline Shaw, performed by the Attacca Quartet
This sound installation is based on the Gnostic Poem The Thunder: Perfect Mind. The poem is an all-encompassing event, capturing the essence of effervescent spirituality in every moment and in everything. The Gnostics believed that the god/s were not, that life and everything entangled between was where to find meaning.
The piece's essence is questioning how we can allow the poetry of everyday domestic experience to interrupt and engage with our experience of such a poem, to transport us from our physical location within a space, to the space in our memory. Can sound act as a membrane, can sound be architecture, can it mediate a spatial experience? The piece (as it currently is), is a layering of recorded sounds of daily activities and domestic life recorded around my home, with a string quartet arrangement of Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte performed by the Attacca Quartet, and a reading of the poem narrated by Jennifer Sodini (eventually narrated by me).
I am the substance and the one who has no substance, stands in a dialogue with the poem, pulling the audience in and out of the narration through interruptions of domestic occurrences. The goal is to create a full-body soundscape that allows the viewer to move in and out of dialogue with the narration, the physical space, and the space of our memory. The intent is not to create a spatialized soundscape but to address the activity of the sound and how it helps to bring domestic life in and out of focus. The piece, much like the poem, asks for a partnership between pragmatism and romanticism, accentuating wondrous moments of the banal and mundane.
I am the substance and
the one without substance.
the one without substance.
Slide chair,
open window,
close door,
unload dishwasher,
drink water,
warn neighbour,
cut,
rescue someone,
inflate decanter
prepare coffee,
walk stairs,
flush,
speak words,
sing song,
tie myself
ignite burner,
masturbate,
tick tock, tick tock, tick tock,
stroke strings,
shut refrigerator.
quiet...
Contronyms:
Aught:
Bolt:
Bound:
Buckle:
Cleave:
Clip:
Consult:
Dike:
Dust:
Fine:
Finished:
Fix:
Flog:
Garnish:
Hold:
Left:
Let:
Mean:
Model:
Overlook:
Oversight:
Quantum:
Rent:
Rock:
Sanction:
Screen:
Skin:
Skinned:
Strike:
Temper:
Transparent:
Trim:
Trip:
Variety:
Virtual:
Wear:
Weather:
With:
Aught:
Bolt:
Bound:
Buckle:
Cleave:
Clip:
Consult:
Dike:
Dust:
Fine:
Finished:
Fix:
Flog:
Garnish:
Hold:
Left:
Let:
Mean:
Model:
Overlook:
Oversight:
Quantum:
Rent:
Rock:
Sanction:
Screen:
Skin:
Skinned:
Strike:
Temper:
Transparent:
Trim:
Trip:
Variety:
Virtual:
Wear:
Weather:
With: