Names, sections of the Head
As part of the Kettle’s Yard Artists in Residence program, the participating English artists were given an opportunity to invite a foreign artist.
I was invited by Gary Woodley to perform an installation in Cambridge.
This new contact opened up new horizons for me, given my preoccupation with anatomical sections of the head. (see Registraties)
Gary’s work is concerned with transecting immaterial planes along architectonic spaces.
Based on this, I saw the sectional system as means of profiling body parts as concentrations of such transections, especially since they also refer to spatial parameters such as height, width and depth.
For each sectional system - coronal, axial and sagittal - we selected a suitable space within the university complex where the sectional systems could be shown. Simultaneously, the Latin names for anatomical parts of the head were to be recited by singers (i.e. at one pitch)
within the various spaces.
In preparing for the Patterns of Connection Symposium at Kettle’s Yard, Gary and I presented an outline version of the work on the square base at St. John’s Chapel.
Performance:
A performer sits on a chair in the centre of the square. Six slide projectors are places in three pairs, at a distance of three meters from the performer, and directly opposite each other. A voice performer stands next to each projector, and transports the slides.
Lightlines are projected onto the head of the performer seated in the centre, with each opposite pair of projectors beaming one of the three sectional systems. Each pair of slides beams one section.
When the lightlines are projected, highlighting a particular section, the voice performers recite the Latin terms included in that section at a fixed pitch. This is done in turn by each participant of a pair, whereby the sounds as it were bounce back and forth.
When all the names of that section have been recited, the next pair of slides are transported and the process continues.
Each of the three pairs use a different pitch and perform independently of each other.
The performance ends when all the names have been recited.
year | 1997 |
location | St John's College Chapel, Cambridge UK |
brief description | While sections of the head are indicated by projected light lines, the Latin names of anatomical elements in each section are recited |
performed by | members of St. John's Scholars |
curator | Gary Woodley |
photography | Paul Allit |
project or event | symposium around the work of Gary Woodley organized by Kettle's Yard Cambridge |