Installation / Floating Site (index)
Memory Court: the Soundings of Things 記憶庭院：浮塵、響物
A performance to activate installation work Tree of Life (chapter 3)
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CONCEPT 概念
MEMORY COURT: the Soundings of Things
A semi-improvized lecture performance with sounds and objects
/created by Linda Lai with Longman Luk and Valerie Mak
“Memory Court” could be a lecture performance, but it surely evolves into an object event, tangentially connected with Tree of Life and Bamboo Percussive at “signals…” as an interventionist activation.
“Memory Court” is a material space to invoke the limits of interpretation and representational practices. Language becomes sounding. Bodies connect with sounds. Motions evolve in space into eclectic object events. Dialectic structures take over hermeneutic circles.
“Memory Court” is a performative response to Matteo Ricci’s “memory palace,” Aby Warburg’s non-verbal art-history experiment Mnemosyne Atlas, Gerhard Richter’s anomic archive, Atlas, Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen and Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A – all embodied in an assemblage event I have developed with the Floating Projects.
The “Memory Court” is far from a cosy-intimate personal space. I think of it as a crime scene re-enacted with objects on trial whereas a court stenographer tenaciously records the multi-sensorial events with improvised strategies.
記憶庭院，浮塵、響物
物件作為呈堂證物打開的會是甚麼？
東南西北。上下前後左右。回望，遠眺。
回顧歷史，投射未來，盡在此刻、這裡。
物與物並置，抽絲剝繭：物件裹藏，物件披露。物件挑撥。
肢體潛活於空間。示範。講述。奏鳴。歌唱。忐忑不安。喃喃自語。
「記憶庭院」是個策問的過程，試圖理解利瑪竇的「記憶宮殿」、Aby Warburg的「記憶地圖」、Gerhard Richter的失範的存庫「地圖集」、Martha Rosler 的「廚房符號學」，和 Yvonne Rainer 的 《三重奏A：思想是肌肉》的交匯處，以「聚疊」的方法展現，從而把「瞬息」展場的《物語生命樹》和《竹鳴》再推進一步。
DOCUMENTS
ORIGINAL PROPOSAL in pdf [... ...] / Performance: VIDEO DOCUMENTATION [coming soon] / FULL SCRIPT -- English version (23 Sep 2023) | Cantonese version (16 Sep 2023)
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The performance in SIX episodes
Ep |
Cantonese v 中文版 (Sep 16) |
English v 英文版 (Sep 23) |
Event (+ court recording throughout |
min |
1 |
記憶庭院：向物延展的生命樹 |
Tree of Life in the Memory Garden |
recited prologue, live soundscape |
5 |
2 |
通往真相的窄門 |
The narrow passage to truths |
pantomine, live soundscape |
7 |
3 |
搜證 |
Forensics: objects on trial 3’ Relativity (reading found letters) |
descriptions |
10 |
4 |
講課 |
recitation, role play |
10* |
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4 |
相對論 (Chinese Only) |
Insights (English Only): quotes on new materialism |
recitation, performed lecture |
10* |
5 |
微敘事 |
Micro Narratives |
poetry reading |
10 |
6 |
浮塵 |
Sand Adrift, Dust Afloat |
pantomine, live soundscape |
5 |
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Duration
approx. 45-55 min
Everyday objects
Plastic yellow ducklings 小黃鴨, kitchen utensils 廚具, shoulder poles made from bamboos 扁擔, hemp ropes 麻繩, imitation jewelry (plastic) 塑膠仿首飾, fatty pork soaked in sugar placed in a glass bottle 置於玻璃瓶裡的糖腌肥豬肉, hand-folded paper boats 紙船, a dress
Sound-making objects
Shoulder poles made from bamboos 扁擔, 2 toy pianos 玩具鋼琴, erhu 二胡, prepared sound fragments 備用（預錄的）聲音碎片
Furniture | equipment
a long table 長桌 (object trial 物件呈堂證物), a set of desk+chair 桌+椅(for court secretary 法庭紀錄員), a rocking chair, music stands 樂譜架, sound system for live soundscape
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...top L: a dress hanging near the end of the performance area ...top Middle: the rocking chair used in the performance ...top R: "Bamboo Percussive" in chapter 3 of Tree of Life at signals... ...below: details of the main tree in Tree of Life The performance is a site-specific activation of the 2-part installation |
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ARTIST'S NARRATIVE 創作者陳述 The tree of life speaks… … the fruits it bears, outgrowths, tendrils … the objects, tools and instruments All with a narrative that outlives ours The tree of life speaks… Housing memories… Potentially histories… Hail, hail down… show yourselves. Let us hear you out… disparate, dispersed, disembodied, dissipated voices Channeled, connected.
生命樹喃喃自語，綿綿的說著我們或許聽不見的話…… 生命之樹會說話…… 來吧……展示你的枝葉，響出你的果子。 |