Description
In the Écouter avec les doigts performance. A wide rectangular hole (approx. one meter) was cut in the gyprock wall of the gallery leading to a small closet on the other side. The opening was framed on the inside and a narrow ledge was installed at the bottom. The closet was unlit and remained dark. An antique bobbin winder was installed at one end of the opening exposing only the spindle.
For the performance, the artist had prepared one-centimeter wide strips of cut dictionary pages, each of which were attached to the spindle using a clothes pin. The viewer could see only the artist’s disembodied hands turning the bobbin crank to spin the strips into a thread. When each strip was completely wound, it was removed from the spindle and one of its ends was twisted by hand to the end of the previous thread (held in place by a round stone), connecting them to create a continuous thread. This thread was dropped into a pile on the floor, accumulating over the duration of the exhibition.
Statement
A common story describing the origins of the world often includes a spinner/weaver and most often she is a woman. In Greek mythology, the Three Fates – Clotho spins, Lachesis measures and Atropos cuts the thread. The threads of this history are still present in our expressions, woven into the fabric of our society. Let me spin you a tale, and especially, we hang by a thread.
In Écouter avec les doigts / The Fingers Listen I was also thinking of the fairy tales I read as a child about piles of straw being spun magically overnight into gold. I wanted the viewer to see only my hands, as if disembodied, magically spinning paper into thread.
Karen Trask, 2024