Hear My Voice and Answer Me

About

.Hear My Voice and Answer Me is an exhibition produced in collaboration between artists Rachael Finney, Anna FC Smith, and curator Nathalie Boobis and featuring artist Doreen Kutzke in response to the specific culture, architecture and use of the Swiss Church.

By capturing the sound and visuals of Doreen Kutzke’s yodels in the Church, and re-presenting them in the space as recorded sound and filmed image, the artists’ intentions are to highlight the fundamental tie between voice and body; emanating from the mouth and returning back to the ear. Doreen’s yodels will become both a trace and an echo of her existence and experience.

Attention will be drawn to the power of the voice without language to transcend linguistic limitations and the body, and to reach beyond the self in order to assert the existence of the self, like a cow herder in the Swiss Mountains using his yodels and the mountains’ echoes to assert his presence. The aim of the exhibition is to herald the power of yodelling, an ancient mode of vocalisation to communicate existence, to connect with other beings, and to transform physical and mental space. The installation as a whole will not only represent these ideas but will bring them to life through the haunting power of yodelling and the physical and spiritual resonance of the Church.

There will be a closing event on the 20th March at 7.30pm featuring live performances from Phil Minton and Rachael Finney. Phil Minton is the master of vocal improvisation and the sole purveyor of Welsh yodelling. He will be performing his Welsh yodelling, working with the long echo and expansive acoustics of the Church, and a yodelling version of John Cage’s mesostics poems. Rachael Finney will be expanding on her work in the exhibition by performing live with her original recordings of Doreen Kutzke’s yodelling.

The exhibition is funded by the Swiss Church in London as the winning proposal in their annual Goldsmiths Exhibition Competition.