After uncovering Adam’s sin in her throat, Judith Deschamps takes us into the depths of the larynx. The Adam’s apple, which develops during puberty as the vocal cords stretch and the voice becomes deeper, is a name that continues to evoke the fall described in the Book of Genesis, and the ensuing loss of innocence and degradation of the body.
The three-voice choirs present in the installation attempt to capture this faltering, with each breath rendering a transformation, manifesting a modulation of vocal tone produced by aging. What is ravished is not only the voice’s clarity, its former purity, but the ability to listen to and experience bodily vicissitudes peacefully; the original myth etched in the larynx predisposing the way we relate to the body’s changes and finitude.
Ravissements is an extension of the artist’s earlier action seeking to dislodge the grip of this myth. Here, the larynx becomes a site of exploration and re-appropriation, with the voice as the expression of its internal vibrations and fluctuations.
With
The voices of Elisabeth, Pauline, Mayotte, Mohamed-Amin, Paul, Jacques