Philomela
Overview
One can sing but one cannot speak without a tongue. Once torn from articulacy one must look for another way to speak. In this sequence, I recreate line 2328 of Chaucer’s Philomela. The attention is on the brutal point of cut, on the violent tearing from speech and articulacy, on her uttered cry for help.
The Philomela project is singular in my production in that it started with drawing rather than with writing or sound recording and it has not yet found its live performance or installed form.From the start, I have imagined this project as an aria for a woven female voice. Female voice woven into noise. Female voice trailing its noise. Noise that reveals a voice and its voicing. One can sing but one cannot speak without a tongue. Once torn from articulacy one must look for another way to speak.
This series was published with an accompanying note as “Philomel: Aria for Woven Voice” in an issue on Performance Drawing, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art May 2014, Vol. 36, No. 2 (107) . Thank you to Bonnie Marranca.
Philomela: Aria for woven voice
2014

Philomela (line 2328)
Ink on rag paper, 430 x 620mm.

Philomela (line 2328)
Ink on rag paper, 430 x 620mm.

Philomela (line 2328)
Ink on rag paper, 430 x 620mm.
Exploded House
2011

Exploded House 1
Gesso on rag paper , 260 x 360mm.

Exploded House 2
Gesso on rag paper , 260 x 360mm.

Exploded House 3
Gesso on rag paper , 260 x 360mm.

Exploded House 4
Gesso on rag paper , 260 x 360mm.