in stillness

[colour photographs by Andrew W Larrabee, B/W photograph by Jonathan Crabb]

24mins composition - for unamplified voice, ear canal shaped gong, violin bow, cello bow and claravox theremin

The performance harnesses a lived experience of hearing loss and tinnitus in a 24 mins presentation. Shifting one's perception of sound, the performance points to aural diversity as it sits on the edge of silence while embodying loudness. Its visceral quality aims to draw in the audience to allow space for quiet reflection with the potential for community rebellion, and a reframing of problematic norms of listening. 

Lola de la Mata explores the outer edges of the Claravox theremin’s electromagnetic field as a means of pushing against another body. Strikingly altering her form in architectural moments of stillness and suspension, slicing through air with the wood of her violin bow she will generate her own energy and reflections visualising loudness.

Shifting air, the piece holds itself on the edge of silence, fine tuning the ears and eyes of listeners.

Gestures mirror those of a conductor, holding and hovering power in a considered frame, later amplified by energy summoned from themes taken from heavier, noisier concert spaces, head banging, and playing with the ego of male guitarists and the windmill ‘trick’.

>> Early iterations of the piece were developed from a prompt by curator Roísin Tapponi for the Lisson Gallery, in collaboration with Eve Stainton

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