Magnetic Litany / Performance and Sculpture (2019)

This work began as a performance on the opening evening of the Auditorium of Rotting Sounds on March 29, 2019. It is conceptually connected to the permanently exhibited object “Magnetic Room” (2018–2022) and incorporates recordings on cassette from the same piece.
During the performance, I spent four hours crocheting. I sat in the exhibition space while visitors could join me, sit beside me, and put on the headphones placed nearby to listen to my voice. Wearing a headset, I shared stories—counting knots, performing imaginary personal prayers, and perhaps revealing secrets.
With one hand, I wove a new sculpture from various magnetic tapes, while simultaneously engaging in storytelling, honoring the tapes as a medium of storage and memory. The act of crocheting became both a performative gesture and a sculptural practice, intertwining narrative, material, and memory.

 

As part of the PEEK project, Rotting Sounds.
Grant DOI 10.55776/AR445
https://doi.org/10.55776/AR445 

© Thomas Grill