communicate. SINGAPORE
at Post-Museum for R.I.T.E.S. #8 November 5th 2010
communicate.
Walk this route.
Communicate to others without speaking, only using drawings.
Ask others to communicate with me without speaking, only using drawings.
Have drawing conversations. All members of the conversation cannot speak, must use drawings to communicate.
Communicate.
Performance at Post-Museum
Photos by Jason Lee
American artist Eric Scott Nelson, currently residing in South Korea, followed Jittima’s thought-provoking work with an equally intriguing commentary on communication. The audience shifted to a room with an amp, microphone and white wall, onto which a video could be projected. Eric sat cross-legged on the floor and opened a drawing pad, his head down, a camcorder in one hand and the microphone in the other. He began in a low voice, explaining his desire to communicate in pictures rather than words with the city of Singapore. His past works often involve the exploration of language and relationships of a place. Perhaps it relates to his own extensive travels – consistently feeling foreign in a foreign place and, by extension, finding new ways to communicate with his surroundings. The camera focused on each page he turned, showing pictures of ordering food, buying drinks or asking directions. Eventually he came to a street map, where he wrote the word “communicate” using the street corners as letter angles. He calls these his word maps. He continued flipping through the drawing notebook, showing his conversations in pictures with those he met in Singapore. He never once looked up. He kept his head down and used the camera to show his work, enlarged on the wall in front of him. All that echoed was his voice. It was an emotional testament to the trials of conversation in cross-cultural situations, in addition giving strength of purpose to the fundamental use of pictures.
He then involved the audience, by slowing walking around the room, inspecting each face closely with his camera. He said “this is the way I want to communicate with you – maybe we can communicate this way in the future.” He skipped from face to wall to spot on the floor, speaking or watching with his camera, all the while breathing into the microphone. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the work was when he began to speak his own language, a high pitched gibberish which he addressed each audience member with, putting them on the spot, in an awkward state of confrontation and friendliness. Most reacted well, saying one thing or another, offering him a glass of wine, and many responded in a version of the language he was using, causing random eruptions of laughter. It was a light-hearted attempt to convey the interactions between people, sometimes trying and other times pure delight.
It seemed that his mission to communicate came full circle. In pictures, in language, in friendship and discomfort. The audience reactions were a form of a communication in themselves.
by Nathalie Johnston
