Drift, 2008, Video

Medium
Four-channel colour video installation with sound.
Dimensions
4 minutes.
Drift, 2008. Four-channel colour video with sound. 4 minutes

Drift (2008), is a four-channel video installation that consists of the soprano Iris-Anna Deckert singing the same medieval plain chant in different parts of a cloister attached to the Konstanzer Münster in Konstanz, Germany. The abbey forms a fitting historic backdrop to the haunting song ‘O Viridissima Virga’ composed by Hildegard von Bingen – a twelfth-century German nun, declared a Saint in 2010, an enormously influential mystic, writer, naturalist medic and composer, who has recently been reclaimed by queer and feminist scholars. The films are edited so that each rendition of ‘O Viridissima Virga’ starts at the same time. As it unfolds it creates at times a clash, and at other times a sense of harmony. However, despite being accompanied by Philipp Claßen-Utz who plays a droning metronomic Shruti Box (a traditional Indian instrument used for meditation), the soprano’s voice weaves in and out of synchronicity.

Related theme: Sound / Singing

Related theme: Performance

Related theme: Participatory / Collaboration