21 November, 2009
Gramercy Theater
New York
John Duncan and 30-voice chorus included in A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality: A Select History of Experimental Music
Performa festival 2009
Curated by Mike Kelley
Produced by Mark Beasley for Performa
Chorus included Andria Alefhi, Floanne Ankah, Katherine Bauer, Ed Bear, Lea Bertucci, Miranda Bushey, Amanda Boekelheide, Victoria Cho, Laura Cossa, Tyler Dusenbury, Melissa Guerrero, Pedro Jimenez, Mikey IQ Jones, Sarah Ann Karp, Maria Levitsky, Kelsey McFalls, Leyla Mesic, Billy Miller, Jen Poueymirou, HaQuyen, Melissa Rocha, Chris Rice, Urban Schwegler, Matthew Silver, Jim Thirlwell, Tradon Turner, Sasha Vine, Anna Gurton-Wachter, Randal Wilcox and anonymous audience members.
Unexpectedly, the entire theater goes completely dark.
For several seconds everyone sits in silence, blind.
Duncan and the chorus members, sitting throughout the audience, begin to to whisper to themselves.
In a moment, continuing to whisper, they stand up in the dark and undress loudly enough for the strangers sitting near them to hear. Nude or semi-nude, they turn to the strangers and start screaming.
Some stand up and scream back. Cellphone camera strobes flash throughout the audience. Screaming and strobes continue for several minutes.
Then whispering again, Duncan and the chorus move through the crowd to the exit to end the event.