THE BLESSING

˚The Blessing of the Throats; (2020)

Shot at Les Récollets (during the 2019 residency) and key locations in Paris, The Blessing is a neo noir video essay that tracks the corrosive effects of gendered language in the body that speaks it and the loneliness that accompanies feeling trapped in a vessel that betrays its interior. It is a reading of Gilles Deleuze's Le pli (on Leibniz and the Baroque) and is heavily inspired by Beckett's movement-based pieces such as Quad. Its play—beyond the body—with diegetic sound is inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, in particular Le gai savoir (with its free-association imagery) and Masculin/féminin. Following Deleuze's investigation of monadology in the aforementioned text, it considers as well the inward/outward development of the Hegelian Spirit. This is also found in its structure; a four-channel video installation in the shape of a cube, with French subtitles in the interior chamber and English on its exterior walls. It features music by Creaghan performed under the moniker Soeur Acéphale (see tab for further details). It is a four-channel piece set up like a cube, with the French subtitles in the interior chamber, and the English on the screens facing outward.