PDA#1 : THE SAILOR
The volume “/” is out of space
PDA#1: The Sailor was a durational performance developed during a residency alongside the Large Glass Department at Nida Art Colony, Lithuania, and presented at the exhibition “The Volume “/” Is Out Of Space”. The work centers on the recording of a local Lithuanian street poetry performance we stumbled upon at our arrival as a group and was inspired by R. Solnit’s pedagogical injunction in her Field Guide on How to Get Lost : “How will you go about finding the nature of that which is unknown to you ?”
For the duration of the performance – the time it takes for an insect repellent coil to burn - I playback, listen to and repeat the recording out loud, without any comprenehsion of its semantics. Refusing an extractive translation process seeking to establish mastery and equivalence over that which is foreign, I instead focus on the materiality of the sound and how it manifests within my own mouth as the site of opacity and as a host matrix. Simultaneously, I consume and share chocolate casts of seashells found at a local tourist stall – a species entirely foreign to the area and native to the Atlantic Ocean, nevertheless sold as a souvenir – mixed with rose petals harvested from a nearby forest.
Through phonetic approximations and slips of the tongue in emulating the accent, the audience joins in in struggling to decode the actual meaning behind the sounds. Establishing a decentralized, collaborative hermeneutics, this linguistic failure opens up a generative space. As the audience is invited to transcribe their understanding of the piece, resulting in new configurations and iterations of the poem: “ EVERY LAST SECOND / PANIC / PEACE / BRAINS / SEA SHORE / RELIGION / FOR LIFE / EARTH / SPRING / GOD and "Brain / Every last second / A moment / Adrenalin is it possible / is it possible / Die / cooling in the shore / sea sings / no mother but rock / My life, barefoot on top of trees / almighty / Spring almighty".
PDA#1 : THE SAILOR
The volume “/” is out of space
PDA#1: The Sailor was a durational performance developed during a residency alongside the Large Glass Department at Nida Art Colony, Lithuania, and presented at the exhibition “The Volume “/” Is Out Of Space”. The work centers on the recording of a local Lithuanian street poetry performance we stumbled upon at our arrival as a group and was inspired by R. Solnit’s pedagogical injunction in her Field Guide on How to Get Lost : “How will you go about finding the nature of that which is unknown to you ?”
For the duration of the performance – the time it takes for an insect repellent coil to burn - I playback, listen to and repeat the recording out loud, without any comprenehsion of its semantics. Refusing an extractive translation process seeking to establish mastery and equivalence over that which is foreign, I instead focus on the materiality of the sound and how it manifests within my own mouth as the site of opacity and as a host matrix. Simultaneously, I consume and share chocolate casts of seashells found at a local tourist stall – a species entirely foreign to the area and native to the Atlantic Ocean, nevertheless sold as a souvenir – mixed with rose petals harvested from a nearby forest.
Through phonetic approximations and slips of the tongue in emulating the accent, the audience joins in in struggling to decode the actual meaning behind the sounds. Establishing a decentralized, collaborative hermeneutics, this linguistic failure opens up a generative space. As the audience is invited to transcribe their understanding of the piece, resulting in new configurations and iterations of the poem: “ EVERY LAST SECOND / PANIC / PEACE / BRAINS / SEA SHORE / RELIGION / FOR LIFE / EARTH / SPRING / GOD and "Brain / Every last second / A moment / Adrenalin is it possible / is it possible / Die / cooling in the shore / sea sings / no mother but rock / My life, barefoot on top of trees / almighty / Spring almighty".