pH is a performance premiered in 1990, featuring a new kind of theatrical set: a central (trench' is swept by two constantly moving gantries controlled by computer. The original, uppermost gantry was fitted with surveillance equipment and slide projectors. Suspended close to the ground, the second gantry projected a bright light evoking the scanner of a giant photocopier. The performers submit to the scrutiny of this inquisitorial technology. Often, they are forced to jump over or lie flat on the ground as it passes overhead, like some futuristic identity check, presaging a new, digitalised vision of individuality. The term pH (`potential hydrogen') is borrowed from the world of chemistry, where it is used to measure the thirteen degrees of acidity or alkalinity. Hence, the performance is structured as a sequence of thirteen 'oppositions': public/private, offense/defense, male/female etc. Dumb Type saw Japanese society of the early 90s as trapped in a state of intolerable inertia and neutrality. Simplified and partly reactivated here, the original pH machinery continues to evoke the pressures of a society determined to exert extreme control.
From 20 January to 14 May 2018, as part of "ACTIONS+REFLEXIONS" (Dumb Type solo exhibition), Centre Pompidou-Metz (FR). |
