שתיקה | Silence: Act 1

2017

Collaborators: Anke Schüttler and Jennifer Starkey

Silence is part of our human nature, which can no longer be heard by most people. Close your eyes and listen for only a few seconds to the world you live in, and you will hear this lack of true quiet, of silence. Refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and airplanes are a few of the things that have become part of the ambient sound and prevent us from listening to the natural sounds of our environment. It is our birthright to listen, quietly and undisturbed, to the natural environment and take whatever meanings we may from it. By listening to natural silence, we feel connected to the land, to our evolutionary past, and to ourselves. One Square Inch of Silence, Gordon Hempton

Canoe on the Slough, in collaboration with Anke Schüttler and Jennifer Starkey, is an experiment in silence that punctuated an active day of cultural art production at Assembly 2017 in Portland, OR.   In an effort to turn our attention toward the lost ecology of silence and the physical landscape around us, 18 participants took a one hour paddle down the Columbia River Slough. In silence. No other directives or prompts.  Simply to listen, to breathe and to note.

This project has prompted an upcoming work of art for Assembly 2018 in which the audience will walk with a stranger in silence from one designated location in Portland, OR to another.  The performative prompt is to walk In Step.  The practice is a meditation of silence, of noticing, of breathing, touch and motion.