The sound installation and notational score was created from extracting the commas from the Constitution of the United States of America. In music notation, the comma is the mark for a performer to take a breath. I invited breath practitioners from various fields—singers, actors, yoga and Lamaze instructors—to translate and interpret these pages of commas through their individual training and practice of breathing. I was interested in how the commas in writing are analogous to commas used for breath marks in music, and how an intimate and vulnerable exchange could emerge from this politicized text, extending beyond the boundaries of language, into an embodied and intimate human experience.
Recordings of the interpretations created a chorus of breath that were installed spatially on exposed wooden beams, drawing attention to the normally hidden details of architectural spaces. Commas from the pages of the sound score punctuated the walls, and a corresponding publication was produced by Gravel Projects.
breath practitioners: Carlye Eckert, Denise Hopkins, Elizabeth Casasnovas-Calderon, Katie Mullins, Mark Trecka.
featured in Forbes, Immerse Yourself In The Intersection Of Art And Music, 2020
This project was exhibited in Visual Record: The Materiality of Print curated by Elleree Erdos at Print Center New York (Oct 8, 2022 - Jan 21, 2023), and Acoustic Resonance at ICA at MECA (Maine College of Art) in Portland, Maine (Oct 2 - Dec 11, 2020), and supported by an iea (Institute for Electronic Arts) Residency for Visual Arts at Alfred University (Fall 2020).
installation photos: Joel Tsui, courtesy of Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art