Rehearsal of Flickers (2021)

Floor piece and performance, dimensions variable
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Secret Societies group show, 2011

A performer makes a particular hand gesture that is linked to the sign he is standing on. With each sign and gesture, I play a brief corresponding sound sequence. The performer follows certain rules as to how to move, but has the freedom to go where desired. In this way, the performer’s movement generates the sound piece as a whole.

The work formed part of a group show on secret societies, in which certain protocols and behavioural codes need to be fulfilled in order that membership is granted and maintained. I view this work though also in a general sense concerning the rituals prevalent within societies, including body language and the way people communicate.

The signs and rules I created for behaviour over time are not unlike the musical score and the conductor conveying performance ideas through body gesture. This work is therefore also a further development of my previous work Spatial Language in Jest (2011).