Ian Nolan ~ From Turning to Becoming: laments for shattered worlds
The arrival of colonialism had the effect of shattering worlds. This shattering becomes a loss, thick with presence, which we mourn. In Ireland, mourning traditionally takes the form of a Wake. Central to this is the ritual act of Keening; a poem, sung aloud, typically by someone close to the deceased. Following no set meter or score, it meanders; revealing emotional oscillations that ornament the air. The song, its utterance, always arrives later. Beginning with the encounter, which always already began somewhere else, sound travels through the body and finds itself in the end, changed. As an echo, a chorus, it returns, alerting us to something, somewhere, yet to be reached. The song, in the utterance, belies a whole relationality, a tangled and haptic existence that is always prior to language; the intertwining of past, present, and future life worlds emerge in the lament as the hum of their contact.
AEROPONIC ACTS 2024 ~ Chameleon Orbit