The Phrasebook of Migrant Sounds, Vol. 6
barker&choy volley utterances between YHZ and SIN in real time while visiting sites with shared colonial place names.
This project is NOMADIC and will take place in six sites commonly known by colonial place names (eg. "Victoria Park") that have corresponding colonial place names in Singapore (eg. "Victoria Street"). You can view the project's live tracking at the Anna Leonowens Gallery
6:15-6:45 "Queen" performance starting at back plaza of Central Library
7:15-7:45 "Victoria" performance starting in south end of Victoria Park
8:15-8:45 "Dalhousie" performance starting at Sea Bridge on waterfront
9:15-9:45 "Waterloo" performance starting at Bishop's Landing on waterfront
10:15-10:45 "Victoria" performance starting in south end of Victoria Park
11:15-11:45 "Queen" performance starting at back plaza of Central Library
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Barker&Choy s’échangent des paroles entre YHZ et SIN en temps réel pendant qu’ils
visitent des lieux coloniaux qui portent le même nom.
Collaborators Becka Barker in K’jipuktuk/Halifax and Gerard Choy in Singapore (or Temasek to call the island nation by one of its earlier historical names) will create itinerant, synchronous, real-time audio performances from 6pm-12am ADT, Saturday October 13th, 5-11am SGT, Sunday October 14th. These durational performances will last approximately 30 minutes each and be performed at regular intervals in various locations of each city's downtown area.
During the performances, each collaborator will take turns repeating the sound of a spoken colonial place name that their partner uttered moments before. As they volley mimicked sounds back and forth, the utterances become incrementally detached from their initial meaning and, ultimately, unrecognizable. Through this process, shifts in sound are subtle in the moment, but become significant over time.
Using smart phones, location tracking software, and audio equipment to amplify their long-distance partner, each collaborator will wander along a local route that audience can follow or encounter by chance. Exposing the flaws in their attempts to create perfect copies of each other’s voices, The Phrasebook of Migrant Sounds Volume 6: Queen invites us to rethink the assumptions of a centre-periphery binary that maintains systemic, colonial feedback loops.
Emphasizing the similarities in colonial place names such as Victoria Park and Queen Street in locations 13 time zones away from one another reveals the absurdity of these systemic feedback loops. In response to the curatorial theme, the artists wonder if it is possible to de-center the arrogated authority—without erasing the past they inherited.
