the corpse, the voice, THE FAGGOT and we (2021)

Performed at Performance Art Week Aotearoa’s opening night 10th/11th/2021

To deconstruct queer mourning melody, through a performance utilising resonant frequencies in space, and in doing so to call out to the queer dead, to find a voice for the queer corpse and to create an active practice of mourning.

The Corpse, The Faggot, The Voice and We

― ― ―

Death is a transformative process.

Recording a room’s resonant frequency is a transformative process.

In cremating, the corpse is transformed through a destructive process.

In singing into a room and re-recording it, over and over, the voice is transformed through a destructive process.

―

“Cultural Folklore convinces us that we can tell someone is gay by their voice alone”[1]

The faggot is identified by the faggot’s voice (apart from when they're dead). 

“The Voice is one of the chief criteria by which to determine abnormal sexuality” [2]

―

Wailing is the keenest form in which grief is expressed.

The voice takes the deepest loss and its private experience and casts it into the public world.

Death is an active process.

The corpse is active, and I would like to try and give the 'corpse' a voice

―

Queer corpses are pushed aside, with historically more force than the regular old corpse.

In death, the queer is hidden in private, death’s door closes the faggot from themselves, their reality is taken from them and their corpse. 

They can no longer speak for themselves. They can no longer identify themselves. 

―

To let the corpse sing itself to peace.

To let it sing itself out through its disintegrating, its voice disintegrating into the air and the space.

To let its voice float away and no longer be marked by one vocalist, but as sound waves floating in breezes as ashes in the wind.

[1] Koestenbaum, Wayne. The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire. 1st ed., Poseidon Pr, 1993.

[2] Lind, Earl, and Mint Editions. Autobiography of an Androgyne (Mint Editions). Mint Editions, 2021.

Performance artweek aotearoa 10th/11th/2021

All Photo Credits to Yoon Young Lee and PAWA

A Description.

At either end of the space is a room microphone and a single speaker, all connected to recording and playback equipment.

The action of the performance consists of myself at one end, beginning by singing a melody from a composition titled “To All Those That are Dead, The Fags are in Their Beds”. This is recorded as it is sung.

The next stage is the person at the other end of the room is invited to wordlessly sing overtop of that, as it is played back into the space. They are invited to sing whatever melody they feel, to harmonise, add to repeat what they hear, pull something completely different from inside themselves. Whatever sounds they express when thinking about grief and their experience of it.  This is recorded again. 

This process is repeated and as this process repeats, the melodies will gradually degrade into the increasing resonant frequencies of the room itself, gradually becoming indiscernible as the original melody, but another completely different sound imbued from the voices and the space. 

The co-performer/audience is invited to stay for as many repeats as they feel, to sing for as long or as short as they feel.  This process will repeat for the entire duration of the performance

Some Instructions.

I ask you to think about grief.

I ask you think of how your throat and your diaphragm feel as you think over your experience of grief, or your understanding of it, or anything related to the ongoing process of death we are engaged in. Whatever you like. 

I ask you to think about the first sound you might have ever made – The first sign of life is a wail from a baby. 

I ask you to think what the last sound you will ever make may be – Perhaps a breath maybe a moan. 

These are all wordless. 

I ask you to sing with me wordlessly and let your throat listen and to also share. 

Let your voice just make some sounds. 

You can pick a syllable, a shape, a tone. Anything you like, as long as it’s not a word. 

And then we will sing together.