Say Parsley
Say this language heels
language keals over
S wallow in it
F hollow hollow fall low
S peak s low ly lie low
Say this feels c loose
the big mous th chokes
has a bong st r uck
in the throat
…
TEAM
Caroline Bergvall: Installation concept & general composition, texts, lead voice
Ciaran Maher: Composer, Programmer
INSTALLATION
Voices: Recorded in the streets of Exeter
Signs: /r/ / h/
OVERVIEW
Say Parsley is a sparse sound and language installation which exposes the power of language to single out and denunciate speakers. In the wake of official and brutal unofficial responses in the UK to 9/11, this felt particularly acute.
Working with composer Ciaran Maher allowed a subtle and spatial exploration of psychoacoustic events that all inform processes of mishearings, misrecognition, assumptions, and misattribution. You hear what you want to hear. You hear what you think you hear.
There were 4 iterations. Each explored this notion in diffferent ways. Photos from the installation at the Liverpool Biennial (2004) sadly lost. Print publication: Project summarised with text material in Fig (Salt, 2004).
BACKGROUND
The background to Say Parsley is the biblical ‘shibboleth’, a violent event where language itself is gatekeeper, and a pretext to massacre. The pronunciation of a given word exposes the identity of the speaker. To speak becomes a give-away. Are you one of us, not one of us? How you speak will be used against you. The most recent example of a large scale shibboleth was the massacre of tens of thousands of Creole Haitians on the border of the Dominican Republic in 1937, when the criteria for execution was the failure to pronounce ‘perejil’ (parsley) in the accepted Spanish manner, with a rolling ‘r’.
REVIEWS
SPACEX GALLERY, 2001
Location: Spacex Gallery/Exeter Maritime Museum, Exeter, UK
Date: Nov, 2001
Production: Josie Sutcliffe
Info: First siting of this collaborative sound-language installation. Group show: Patterns.
Elements: 1 spatial psycho-acoustic soundwork, 1 mono recording of some 50 voices saying: “rolling hills“, 1 stereo text in corner, 1 chalk text on wall, 1 vinyl text on wall, 1 hanging alphabetic plumblines, 1 clock line
MUKHA, 2008
Location: Museum of Contemporary Arts, MuKha, Antwerp, Belgium
Date: 23 May-8 August 2008
Info: Third siting of this sound-language installation around misshearings and language conflicts. Group show: Die Lucky Bush, curated by British sound artist Imogen Stidworthy. For this iteration in bilingual Belgium, I created a new projection work with separate audio and graphic text to confuse reading and listening to false friends words between Flemish, English and French. What you read is not what you hear.
Elements: 1 psycho-acoustic soundwork, 1 trilingual text projection with hanging mono speaker
ARNOLFINI, 2010
Location: Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
Date: 07 May 2010 -03 July 2010
Info: Fourth siting. Group show Lingua Franca.
For this iteration I created a new work around the letter /h/ to reflect the stigmatisation in British English of “dropping one’s aiches”. The badges could be taken by audience members.
Elements: vinyl text on wall, /&/ data projection, 1 hanging alpabetic plumblines with 25 letters with missing letter /h/, 5000 /h/ badges, trilingual data projection w hanging speaker
Link: Lingua Franca, Arnolfini Gallery
Installation : Say Parsley (Nov 2001)
Film of language-led installation exploring the shibboleth in wake of 911. Caroline Bergvall, Lead artist & voice. Ciaran Maher: Sound & Psycho-acoustics composer. Josie Sutcliffe: Producer. Commissioned by Spacex Gallery, Exeter.
Installation: Say Parsley (2010) Arnolfini Gallery
Caroline Bergvall
Ciaran Maher
Lingua Franca season, Arnolfini Gallery
Video Filmed by Duncan Mountfort. Edited by Erica Scourti. Produced by C Bergvall