Mutual: Esteem (2009). Site Specific Performance, Vinyl Records, Film Short.
For this installation I worked with a rual over 70’s choir to develop a performance of their standard repertoire in the socially inappropiate site of a Dublin city centre nightclub. The choreography by the dancers -performing the dance sequency from Band A La Parte - was choreographed by Áine Stapleton and Emma Fitzgerald. This event was documented using a combination of Super 8 film/ HDV / analogue sound recordings.
The subsequent gallery nistallation included a filme short and a vinyl recording listening station.
Viewers/ participants are invited to examine their response to this performative action by the choir. Is it to be empathy, embarrassment or contempt? As the choir sings we realise that their performance is not transformed by the environment of SIN nightclub. They remain indelibly themselves, refusing to alter their music or their performance in response to this heavily Viewer/ sexualised environment. Notes are missed, words improvised or confused. Yet despite all the choir communicates with its audience.
