Paean - A song of praise or triumph

I’m learning a medicine that cannot cure. It’s a real substance though. Hopefully this doesn’t infantilize you. Anyways. You’ll tell me. I’ll set something in motion. You’ll tell me what it is to soothe, to smooth, to caress. To add a soft layer of fur. A layer of warm or cool. A sound. A story of you. A rock. To entertain. To congratulate you. To have you dislike for the sake of preference; your assertion of self. To feel you change. The simple pain of it. To watch you need something it’s possible no one can give. To be lost and still decide to move. And still decide to be seen trying. For grace’s sake. While we’re at it and while you’re right here with me.

Performance made for the 11e Biennale d’art performatif de Rouyn-Noranda, October 2024.

This is the start of research looking at palliation as a motive for performance; possibly a presumptuous or futile attempt to make things that feel good for someone.

rita macneil’s music and speaking is featured as someone whose work soothed without shame and also without avoidance of difficulty. so many others have done this too. I start with her.

Thom gill made the instrumental arrangement/recording of everybody hurts by r.e.m.

the creation process was influenced and nourished by a radical research-creation cultural studies class (taught by sebastian de line) at queen’s university.

Photos by Christian Leduc