Lament of Desire: Programmes: ELISION Ensemble

Lament of Desire

A work in six parts that combines installations, musical improvisation, spoken text and meditation dedicated to bridging the gap between the present world and the world of the dead

8:00pm, 23--27 February 1999

Eastern Workshop, Fremantle Gaol, Perth

The Festival of Perth

Lament of Desire involves readings from traditional Thai literature and the projections of bodies in death onto pools of water frame to structure a silent poetic communication with the dead. The readings are drawn from the Inaow, a traditional Thai literary work which is in itself a reconstruction by King Rama II of earlier texts. The subject matter is concerned with the value of love, of being in love and the difference of love between the genders. The `idealised´ concepts expressed within clash severely with the reality of late twentieth century life in Thailand, a discrepancy made more expressive insofar as the Inaow constituted a regular and highly familiar part of the artist's, Araya RASDJARMREARNSOOK's, school education.

Araya in her correspondence in establishing this installation wrote, "Empty space is important for the relation between the living persons (the viewers) and the dead. It is very important to hear the sounds of the reading and the music and especially the sound of the mind during walking, standing and feeling. The sounds of the reading are transmitted by a living person towards a dead person with the hope that a new kind of relationship might be established, inviting the dead person to participate in the process of time, the present, and the content of the readings."

The ELISION musicians perform in a guided improvisation established by Timothy O'DWYER, with the sounds, texts and silences of Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's readings and images. Her voice, in real time, recorded on the six video projections, sampled, manipulated electronically and dispersed within the site, forms a sonic kernel to the performances. As the Inaow also addresses Araya's past, each performance itself also addresses the history of the previous performance through incorporating `debris´, processed samples, of the previous into the improvisational agenda.

"At times they reached inspired heights, somewhere between Arvo Pärt's ethereal chord work and German band Einsturzende Neubaten's industrial intensity."
-- Robert COOK West Australian 25 February 1999

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
Visual Artist/Performer

A continuous passing away of relatives, one after the other . . . when one realises these people are not around anymore, the yearning for them expresses itself beyond the consideration of time; beyond comprehension of impermanance and uncertainty. Even other basic human comprehensions concerning life and death escape the mind.

When the yearning for those people accumulates itself and appears at the surface, then the attempt to embrace the bonds of the past succeed.

The traditional Thai literature names Inaow, composed by anonymous female writers in Ayudhaya Period (1350--1767). About 1779, Inaow was recomposed by King Rama II in the years of the Chakri dynasty. I chose some excerpts from this Inaow for the reading, excerpts which talk about love. These experiences are universal and bring both the reader and the listener closer together.

--Araya RASDJARMREARNSOOK

Timothy O'Dwyer
Composer/Performer

The performance concerns itself with visual- and sound-scapes that evoke the love and yearning experienced in the separation from those in the afterlife. It is the intention of the meditation and performance to focus on the spiritual memory we have of our ancestors and our present state of being. The performance is an expression of our desire to co-exist with the departed in an uninterrupted state of consciousness that negates our ideas of finite physical life.

The ponds found in the centre of the installation loosely represent visual gateways to the afterlife, which the audience and musicians can concentrate upon during the ritual. To further encourage this `dialogue with the dead´ Araya reads excerpts from the hai epic poem Inaow. The `finer´ language of love and yearning found in the poem the codification of roles between the genders, family members, husband and wife, and the resultant discrepancy between the ideals of the Inaow and the every day life of twentieth century Thailand, enables Araya to speak about her memories of the dead with hope for reolution.

Six movements in the sound-scape divided by bells and gongs, overlap the spaces of the ponds and provide an aural map through the work for the audience. As the musicians play, their sounds are simultaneously transformed and elaborated upon through live processing, sampling and mixing then projected within and around the site. At times dense and tempestuous, the music moves on the borders of silence and the inner experience of concentration and listening.

The depiction of empty lifeless husks without spirit, like burnt out temple buildings, like empty prison cells--strongly suggests to me the other, the void and the contemplation of `what is missing from the image´.

--Timothy O'DWYER

Performers and Production

Timothy O'DWYER alto and bass saxophones/composer

Michael HEWES live electronics/sound projection

Deborah KAYSER soprano

Daryl BUCKLEY electric guitar

Andrew CHAMBERS technical co-ordinator

Damien HANSON site co-ordinator

Sarah RICH production assistant

Tim COURTLEY head mechanist

Presented by the 1999 The Festival of Perth. ELISION thanks Fremantle Prison and Rhana Davenport of the Queensland Art Gallery (Senior Project Officer, Third Asia-Pacific Triennial) for their assistance with this project, and also David Blekinsop, Director of the The Festival of Perth.

Festival of Perth Australia Council University of Queensland

ELISION, Australia's national new music ensemble, gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Commonwealth of Australia through the Australia Council, it arts funding and advisory body, and the The University of Queensland through the Office of the Vice Chancellor, Professor John HAY

Lament of Desire

Araya RasdjarmrearnsookVisual Artist/Performer

Timothy O'DwyerComposer/Performer

Performers and Production

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
Visual Artist/Performer

Timothy O'Dwyer
Composer/Performer