ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING (a septet for the apocalypse)

ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING
(a septet for the apocalypse)

There is an unshakeable feeling in the air that the end is nigh, yet somehow you find yourself quietly rooting for the storm, as if a part of you is tired of waiting, wondering when the world will finally fall apart – by lot, by fate, by our own hands, or by the will of the gods – almost daring them to grant your wish. Your gut us hungry for chaos, itching to chase after storms and run headlong into the fire; to watch society break down, and find out what’s truly important.

The apocalypse is one of the oldest fantasies we have, but it’s not about skipping to the end of the story. It’s a longing for revelation, a revealing of what we already know but cannot see: that none of this is guaranteed, and there’s no such thing as ‘ordinary life’; that even just getting through the day should feel like the miracle it is; that our civilisation is just an agreement that could be revoked at any time; that we have no other choice but to survive, to build a shelter, and find each other in the storm.

[[This piece is a companion piece to ALL TOMORROW'S TOMORROWS. Both works are in deliberate conversation with one another, forming a kind of diptych for the end of times.]]

The backbone to ALL WITHIN A COLLAPSING BUILDING (a septet for the apocalypse) is a series of seven video pieces pieces. Each one cannibalises different versions of a pop song and juxtaposes the resulting loop track with edited video footage found online: collapsing buildings, blooming flowers, distribution centres, melting glaciers, conspicuous displays of wealth, abject poverty, raging wildfires, the opening of COP26, etc.

Visually, the videos work like mandalas by juxtaposing central and peripheral images, developing friction between the images, and between the images and the music. Each video serves as a kind of 'revelation', touching on a particular issue/theme (i.e. the collapse of capitalism, the various effects of climate breakdown, economic inequality, technology and the waste it produces…). The videos are bookended by two audio tracks remixing Laurie Anderson songs, which establish the looped and obsessive qualities of the work, as well as its prophetic and oracular nature.

Taking place in front of and alongside the projections, the piece will feature live components: simple repeated choreographies of bold movements and gestures; and a series of collaged texts acting as transitions between each video (as a kind of poetic-absurdist incantations inspired by oracular spirit of the ancient sibyls).

By creating moments of acceleration, suspension, and deceleration, the piece takes the audience on a charged tonal and emotional journey. Its use of obsessive audio-visual loops aims to induce a quasi-trance-like sate in the spectators, inviting them to contemplate (the ending of things?) some of the most prescient challenges the world faces today. The work does not offer ready-made solutions or inject the audience with hope. Instead, it deliberately wallows in today’s sense of hopelessness and doom until the point where these are no longer bearable. In doing so, it seeks to ignite a spark in the audience and spur them towards action.