Confessions that pertain to Whaoo [1]

I was intrigued by the ritual that accompanied rock shows; the electronic music and lyrics which nurtured and ignited the energies of the audience. This was a social manifest in its totality; an arena where performance and audience had become one. The rock music scene had emancipated the audience from “frigidity”, and this is what was influential in making me understand that the issue of how I engage the audience in my performance-work continues to be crucial.

Yes, the above is surprising and somewhat humorous when realizing that I am comparing my work to the enormity of the rock scene, yet the comparison should facilitate an understanding of my incentive in creating Whaoo.[2]
I’ll begin with confessing that in this work I was preoccupied with this state of exaltation which also characterizes the rock scene, and that I created images which were my own associations with this state of mind. And, though I was quite certain that my choice of imagery, visual or sound, will appear superficial or at best ambiguous, this was how I wished the realization of this performance to be, since my genuine actions and behavior were intended to provoke the reflection, of the individual viewer, pertaining to my own choices of imagery and manner of presentation.

And indeed, I had put myself in the stupor of creating an attempt to soar high.
When looking at the documentation of the performance, one can see that the show took place at night on a very high ladder-like construction, from which a long catwalk stage extended into the center of an empty but well-lit lot; I was dressed in white, a wreath of light bulbs around my head; I was climbing the ladder and chanting in a manner resembling a cross between Les Enfants Du Paradis and the melancholy of a Fellini character; children were dancing back and forth, to the sounds of the live electronic music improvised by the renowned musician Yossi Mar- Chaim [3]; some audience members were seated by small tables, drinking bear, while others were taking notice from the fourth floor of the adjacent building, on their way to the other events.

Fantasies that mirror our society, whether in religion, politics or popular culture, are critical in forming our ways of thinking. This goes without “thinking” – does it not? I admit that I am filled with awe at the sight of persons who appear to be in complete uniformity. Even at a political demonstration with which I am in agreement, I still can find myself apprehensive at the sight of all the individuals that are so integrated into the fabric of the audience. And, despite the fact that there is that which has essentially drawn these individuals together, I have no doubts that each one’s thoughts are different, and that each holds within one’s self a private version, a self-owned nuisance, of thoughtful opinions.

In my insistent verification of the value of the individual’s point of view, my performance-work is always characterized by a limited number of audience members and that is in order that I will be able to decipher each person, as I scan the viewers with my eyes, at the start of the performance. Also, in spite of the performance’s frame of narrative which everyone will understand generally in a similar manner, when returning home, one will be overwhelmed with her or his own individual recollections and awareness of the positions, both physical and mental, that they held, as private entities, during the performance.
I am well aware that my choices of presentation of exaltation were a consequence of my own bias; I admit that I was exposing characteristics such as: a-sexuality, naivety, introversion, melancholia, as well as integrity. I suppose, my honest exposure of myself in my performance, rather than as an actress, stimulated in my viewers during this performance as it continues to stimulate, to a greater consciousness of their own associations, attractions, criticisms, affirmations, empathies or, in short, recognizing bias as a legitimate differentiator between persons.
In Whaoo, the viewers were confronted with their own reactions, both empathetic and critical, to however manner in which I have enacted – an attempt at soaring high. The fantasies supplied by our culture are vast, but I, in my art-work, stimulate some mind and heart-searching in the aftermath of these fantasies.

[1] This text was written in 2016 which is 20 years after Whaoo (1996) was performed

[2] Whaoo was not an “only child” in my repertoire of works on the topic of exaltation. There were other works such as:  Ms. Davis, Private Party, A tribute (to Peace), Another Place (On Getting High?), which contended with “exaltation” and, indeed, some were never realized and those that were realized, remain for me a trigger to much contemplation about my work.

[3] Yossi Mar-Chaim – an important Israeli composer