Throat
2022
Watershed Project Space at LIV LAB, Sylva, NC
Watershed Project Space at LIV LAB, Sylva, NC
As the inaugural Watershed Visiting Artist through LIV LAB at Western Carolina University, I had the opportunity to develop a project for the new experimental art space in downtown Sylva, NC. The Watershed Project Space is located on the lower level of a four-story former hotel, with a large garage door opening up to the street. I transformed the former garage into a massive throat for the building, amplifying the voice of the individual to the scale of architecture. Referencing a bodily orifice and acting as an acoustic amplifier, the structure mediates interactions between interior and exterior, performer and audience. Both public workshops and scheduled performances were planned with the object over three weeks, and bootleg records found within the upper floors of the hotel building were broadcast again after decades of dormancy.
Performers from the region around Sylva, NC, and from Spartanburg, SC activated the work over 6 hours one Saturday in April. Southern Studies Fellows Morgan Thomas and Ben Winans wrote and read aloud a manifesto about water, Jenn Gordon sang folk songs, and Morgan Kennedy played the jaw harp. Tattooist Grae Saar connected her tattoo gun to a contact mic, and the duo of Oscar Soto and Yasmin Lee engaged the audience in Dada inspired game. Sound is not only amplified outwards, but simultaneously, the sound is condensed to any listener who places their ear against the fulcrum. We opened the project to the public to speak or listen to the street. A mother sang happy birthday to her 3-year-old daughter, a violin rehearsal became an impromptu concert, and many languages were spoken. The vinyl bootleg records found within the hotel's upper floors consisted of richly textured radio recordings interrupted by the occasional phone conversation.
Performers from the region around Sylva, NC, and from Spartanburg, SC activated the work over 6 hours one Saturday in April. Southern Studies Fellows Morgan Thomas and Ben Winans wrote and read aloud a manifesto about water, Jenn Gordon sang folk songs, and Morgan Kennedy played the jaw harp. Tattooist Grae Saar connected her tattoo gun to a contact mic, and the duo of Oscar Soto and Yasmin Lee engaged the audience in Dada inspired game. Sound is not only amplified outwards, but simultaneously, the sound is condensed to any listener who places their ear against the fulcrum. We opened the project to the public to speak or listen to the street. A mother sang happy birthday to her 3-year-old daughter, a violin rehearsal became an impromptu concert, and many languages were spoken. The vinyl bootleg records found within the hotel's upper floors consisted of richly textured radio recordings interrupted by the occasional phone conversation.
