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| Shawn Decker and Jan-Erik Andersson
Performance: KIASMA, Nykytaiteen museo, Helsinki, Finland
6.8.97
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| This performance was the result of Jan-Erik Andersson and myself meeting
during a project sponsored by the Chicago Artists International
Program in the fall of 1996. At this time, Jan-Erik and I collaborated
on a performance shown at the N.A.M.E. Gallery in Chicago. This performance
had to do with eating (something that Jan-Erik's work had been involved
with for some time) and the sounds - both internal and external - that were
produced. For our Chicago performance, we concentrated on the sounds of
eating an apple - what Jan-Erik called "the ultimate eating sound machine."
A year later, a much expanded version of this piece was performed at the
Museum of Modern Art (KIASMA) in Helsinki.
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For the KIASMA performance, three seperate galleries (all adjacent to each
other) were used. Each gallery had both pre-recorded sounds, as well as
a performance segment. The audience could move between the three rooms throughout
the performance, and the performed sounds were played in each of the three
rooms along with that room's recording. The result was ultimately a bleeding
together of all of the various sound recordings, with the emphasis on a
certain sound depending on your location.
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| The first room contained the apple eating sounds, and the first performance
segment consisted of the same performance as given in Chicago. The second
room contained "cultural" sounds of eating: recordings of restraunts, outdoor
cafes, etc. In this room, Jan-Erik did a performance involving stuttering
- something that he naturally does, and which is very much influenced by
social situations. Finally, the third room concentrated on digestive sounds.
For this, we owe special thanks to Dr. Richard Sandler,
at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, who as a researcher of internal body
sounds was able to supply me with special equipment for monitoring the body's
internal digestive sounds. In this room the performance consisted of monitoring
Jan-Erik's stomach as it worked on the apple he had just eaten several minutes
before. Throughout the piece, the sounds of eating, social "dinner conversation",
and digestion intermingled throughout the gallery. |
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