á Dieu, 2018
Description of the performance:
For á Dieu, Summer Lee and Laura Boles Faw confront feelings of loss and attempts to connect across distances, taking comfort in the ability to stay connected via various technologies. They will address themes of translation, communication, distance, loss of geography/community and additionally a claiming of space and connectivity. In a time when many artists have been pushed out of the Bay Area because of rising costs of living due largely to the dominance of the technology sector, Lee and Boles Faw celebrate the arts community that is still here, and consider the ways that technology connects and distances in spite of its promises.
This performance uses elemental forms of technology to make claims. Boles Faw has written a goodbye letter to Lee, the city and its arts community with invisible ink. Lee, positioned in the window of the house, will reveal this message and subsequently, using Morse code, flash the message out into the city from the home of the French Consul overlooking Boles Faw’s neighborhood of thirteen years. Boles Faw is asking her artist friends and colleagues to stand within the city and signal back to Lee with flashes of light indicating that they are not only receiving the message but also proclaiming their presence and dedication to the supportive and vibrant Bay Area arts community. The participants are artists, arts educators, students, curators, and others who are involved in the arts and who Boles Faw considers beacons of artistic determination.
Lee and Boles Faw contend that this signal is one of hope but should also be a warning for what could potentially be lost if new technologies (the emphasis on technology over all else) create more distancing than thoughtful, genuine, and nuanced connection. With its use of more primitive technology, the performance requires both its participants and viewers to slow down and consider its impending failure, highlighting the speed of life/communication in which modern technology has entrained us.