The Accumulation of Small Acts
Response to my TELEPHONE assignment, 2024
Springfield, Missouri, USA to Llangoed, Anglesey, Wales
TELEPHONE - a game played by artists.
TELEPHONE - a message whispered from person to person that changes and evolves
TELEPHONE - a secret message from art form to art form
TELEPHONE - a message start as poetry, become painting and then music and film.
TELEPHONE - branching outward exponentially like a family tree.
. . .
This behemoth of a project is the brainchild of Nathan Langston, and made possible with support from Satellite Collective and Psychopomp Projects.
See my sculptural video and get lost in the show : https://telephonegame.art/game
This is my third time playing Telephone. It is a welcome intrusion into my life and art practice. I received a piece of music – intense, immersive with a strong beat and high energy - it was the kind of music I would like to dance to with a large group of people. It began well, layering sounds and rhythms to a climax where everything seemed about to spin out of control. But it pulled itself together, finishing with a sense of order and regularity which left me refreshed and energetic.
I love incorporating repetitive labour in my art projects, exhibiting the results of hours and hours of work, but in this current phase of life I don’t have the big chunks of time I’ve had previously. I took the opportunity of playing Telephone to engage in some manual labour (with questionable purpose). I’ve been half-heartedly trying to pull up the quarry tile from the kitchen area of the house we are one day going to renovate. It is a loud, messy, and not very efficient or successful project. I keep trying though, as it’s fun to bang on tools and make noise.
I’ve wanted to be more considerate about sound in my work, so this was a great opportunity to experiment with layering of soundtracks. I was really thrilled that the final video was actually representative of what I was trying to do.
