GARY HILL

Performance with Paulina Wallenberg-Olsson, John Boyle and The Nihilist Spasm Band

Mini video camera, video projector, multi-channel audio sampler, two microphones, sound system, strobe light, two manipulated speakers, assorted percussion instruments, costuming, fire, birdseed, water, needle and thread; approx. 45 min.

Excerpt from Richard Moule’s “Elastic Noise” in Musicworks 77 (Summer 2000), pp. 45 – 46:

“…Hill initially began by filming the statuesque Wallenberg-Olsson as she emerged from the shadows in a white lace Victorian gown complete with hockey shoulder pads.  While she broke into what appeared to be traditional Scandinavian folk songs, Hill moved in on tight close-ups of her thin blond braids, and the folds of her dress, simultaneously displaying it on the white wall at the back of the stage.

While Wallenberg-Olsson continued to intone, Hill proceeded to place the mini-cam over the top of a speaker, then to pierce the speaker membrane with carefully placed sewing needles, weaving thread through them, thus modulating the sound of Wallenberg-Olsson’s voice.  After the needles came some birdseed, then water, then more birdseed, dampening the sound.  After meticulously removing the seed, Hill poured lighter fluid into the speaker and set it alight.  Soon all that was left of it was the decomposed aluminum shell and Wallenberg-Olsson’s unamplified voice.

The second piece began with Hill vocalizing, stuttering, and clipping half-formed words.  Boyle then joined the duo and proceeded to tap out marching rhythms on his homemade floor tom as Wallenberg-Olsson turned her solemn folk songs into wailing incantations.  With her head back and her arms outstretched, her cries became more ritualized as if she were undergoing some form of exorcism.  All the while, Hill’s synth and MIDI unit spat out zapping bursts, matched by Boyle’s home-made kazoo’s blurts and bleeps.”

Broeker, Holger, ed. Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, GHCR 121, p. 237.