The Forest, 2017
7-hour performance
Commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario for Nuit Blanche Toronto 2017.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
The Forest is a seven-hour choral performance that was commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario for Toronto Nuit Blanche in 2017. The work adopts the analog ingenuity of the “human microphone,” a technique for amplifying speech during public gatherings when the use of electronic public address devices is prohibited. The “microphone” requires an assembly of people to repeat the words of the speaker, allowing a message to reverberate through the audience. In place of conventional political speech, the words that flow through the “microphone” in The Forest are lines of poetry from across the world, from the 11th century to the present. Adapted for delivery over this protracted and tenuous method of communication, the collection of poetic fragments coalesces around several motifs: the tree and the forest; sound, voice, and echo; the passage of time marked by night and day and changing seasons; migration, exile, and home; and the common pursuit of civil rights and justice.
The Forest combines the “human microphone” with the poem for multiple reasons. Poetry has a lengthy tradition of being sung or spoken, and the economy of the art form complements the “poverty” of the “microphone.” Most salient is the poet’s relationship to politics. Poets have long been voices of dissent in their writings, but many are also activists, freedom fighters, and political leaders. Merging poetics and politics, The Forest transmits the expansive, rhizomatic words of the poet through the cords of a fragile and provisional body politic.
Study for The Forest, 2017. Pencil on paper.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Performance view, Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Tom Hicken.
Script cover for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.
Script page for The Forest, 2017.