Subway solo
Subway is based on my descriptions of travellers on the New York subway during my artist residency there in 2004. During 42 trips – some short, some long – I closely described the appearance and behaviour of the person who sat, or stood, opposite me while making notes of the exact times.
In the performance Subway, the descriptions are read aloud in the same time frame as in which they were written. The different descriptions are read at the same time by different voices.
As it takes longer to write sentences than read them out, long silences arise, as a result of which the voices sometimes overlap each other and sometimes don’t.
I was asked to do the performance in an empty apartment on the 16th storey of the Weena Tower residential building during the Sky Scraper weekend as part of the Year of Architecture.
On this occasion I performed the work with my own voice. I recorded each description
and played it repeatedly via a small loudspeaker.
In the course of the weekend I kept reading descriptions of trips and positioned them in different places in different rooms of the apartment.
My voice sometimes sounded on its own, at other times layers of my voice could be heard.
The apartment had the intimacy of a human brain in contrast to the panoramic urban view.
year | 2007 |
location | 16th stock Weena Tower Rotterdam NL |
performed by | Toine Horvers |
curator | Miriam Reeders |
photography | Toine Horvers |
project or event | Wolkenkrabber(Skyscraper)-weekend Year of Architecture Rotterdam |