The bed withheld the refreshment of a sleep slept on it

The bed withheld the refreshment of a sleep slept on it is a documentation of a performance which occurred over four days in summer 2021, beginning off the stage as performers are asked to sit in the public areas of a pool and a grocery store and transcribe what they hear in their notebooks. They are then invited to read their transcriptions on a bed, in pairs. The material traces of what has been heard take on another meaning. A chorus is written using the same lines from their transcription. In each scene language is further removed from its origin, and devolves into phonemes–vowels and consonants–and finally into pure sound.

The bed withheld the refreshment of a sleep slept on it is a record of the degradation of language. Or, what ensues in the shape-taking of a society that is negatively formed through language; where linguistic markers devolve into entropic noise and meanings are alienated from their identities. This process cultivates a reverse alienation wherein noise–that which remains indeterminate from language–forms a society of collective meaning-making, calling attention to the chaos of and in relation.

This work is supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

Write me for video link: amixherro@gmail.com