WORDS FOR THE LIVING, 2021
Live Performance | Beth Derbyshire | WERK
Words for the Living is a live performance in which an individual speaker, communicates a series of words and phrases through a megaphone in public space. The words are commemorative excerpts by loved ones for so many of the key workers who have tragically passed away from Covid 19. The poignant and celebratory recital of words is a living memorial, describing the qualities of these incredible people who lost their lives whilst saving others and is intended to pay homage to loss, whilst inspiring the living through their bravery. The performance will be filmed and presented in the digital space of Into the Parade.
Into the Parade is an online web encounter and live project that explores how arts organisation and practitioners across the Midlands are engaging civically. The digital ‘Civic Centre’ is both tangible and metaphorical concept to explore the role of cultural practice in a civic context. Into the Parade is a cultural intervention that undertakes projects that have online and real-world anchors points and has been initiated by Beth Derbyshire and developed with students from the MA Arts and Project Management course at Birmingham City University.
BETH DERBYSHIRE
United, 2006
Exhibted at:
Peterborough Museum, 2003 Sharjah Biennale, United Arab Emirates, 2003
Brussels Art Fair, 2004, selected special porjects
United depicts the borders of Britain through an amalgamation of anthems that represent Great Britain and images of unidentified able landscapes of the British borders. United re-configures words written long ago to offer up an alternative visual and aural notion of an anthem. United is not a replacement anthem but a new contribution, which asks us to think again. Written in the summer of 2005 in Berlin during the time of the bombings in London United is not an advocacy of British nationalism but rather a reflection in general on the current spirit of the international community.
United begins with a slowly building landscape set against a brooding base beat reminiscent of Celtic drums. The composition of the piece has poetic resonance, which is emphasised as the choir hums chords and we hear a whispering of spoken numbers that are the map co-ordinates that denote the boundaries of each country. The sounds cape then pauses and we hear the words clearly sung. United finishes with a return to the landscape.
The Images
The United Kingdom is made up from a series of islands, its borders are marked by the coast line, a constantly moving line marked by the tide. Using this notion as a visual vehicle the film is comprised of murky border-scapes whose delineations and borderlines are dissolved through mist and rain which seemingly unite different parts of whole. The words of ‘United’ come in and out in an organic titling style over the images. The film as per the score always moves from left to right and to correspond with the crescendo and decrescendo in the work the film moves in and out of the landscape. A graphic sequence of the key words and the map-co-ordinates of some of the boundaries are overlaid on to the landscapes.
The libretto is written by Derbyshire and Haage taken from the national anthems of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. Derbyshire and Haage will write all the libretto’s of the films together.
Press links:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jun/01/uknews2.mainsection1
https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/a-new-take-on-patriotism-3980347