Take Days is a call to action in three-part harmony. Performed by the Toronto’s Bach Children’s Chorus in 2023, it is presented as a multi-channel video and audio installation. Take Days began as a rock song, written in expression of my own anger toward our species’ relentless death drive; consuming to extinction and stealing from future generations. Arranged for choral performance, the lyrics recognize that the crisis “is in the present, it isn’t someday”. It begins quietly and builds into a crescendo, like a calm before a storm. The piece allows the viewer to focus on individual singers, creating a dynamic experience for the audience to move about the installation and have their own unique encounter.
Take Days is a bold call to action in three-part harmony. Performed by the Toronto’s Bach Children’s Chorus in 2023, it is presented for Nocturne as a multi-channel video and audio installation.
Take Days began as a rock song, later arranged for choral performance and performed by youth choirs in 2018, 2021 and 2023. It was initially written with my band Wet Denim, in expression of my own anger toward our species’ relentless death drive, consuming our way into extinction, and stealing from the future generation. The lyrics are a recognition that the crisis “is in the present, it isn’t someday”. It connects the “speculative markets and unprecedented growth” to the physical breach of high waters. Compositionally, it begins quietly and builds into a crescendo, like a calm before a storm.
After moving to the United States, I remember bawling in the car while listening to a live broadcast of young people speaking out immediately following the Parkland school shooting; these teenagers, stripped of their agency to enact better policy, being failed by the adults who refused to protect them via gun control. Around the same time, international attention was brought to young activists like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, other examples of children advocating for justice and their generational futures. I myself understood the perils of our environmental collapse in my early life, an anxiety and obsession that motivated my work and continues to drive my practice today.
This video was recorded for Nuit Blanche Toronto in 2023. For Nocturne, the project will realise the work in multiple channels and surround sound, as was the original intention. Though the song itself is a short loop, the piece allows the viewer to focus on individual singers, creating a dynamic experience for the audience to move about the installation and have their own unique encounter.
