Overview

Galás is known for her arresting concert performances and has been seen in the Barbican Hall on several occasions. SPILL and the Barbican are proud to present this important film installation which deals with asylum institutionalisation, originally commissioned by New American Radio and the Waker Arts Center in Minneapolis (US). Witness several short performances over the space of twenty-seven minutes alternating extreme high-energy vocal work with absolute silence. These performances reflect the state of a patient subjected to torture through chemical or mechanical manipulation of the brain, kept in a confined space with periodically or randomly triggered bright light, heat, beatings or rapes. There is a high density of speech-sound over time which is often machine-like in its velocity. The work employs the atypical speech and vocal signal processing that Galás has been researching since 1979.