Output details

India Shouting Match, single screen video work

India Shouting Match is a self-contained work which forms the culmination of my international series Shouting Match (previous works in London, Tel Aviv and New Orleans).

Imagine two seated people facing each other. At the given signal they begin shouting. They have to put everything into a short contest. The harder they shout the more they are in the frame, the quieter they are, the more they are withdrawn. If a participant falls silent – they will fall out of the frame – become invisible.

The Shouting Match series consists of pure shouting and represents research that has developed over a number of years, experimenting with raw communication. As with any continuous exploration, different key elements in this evolving body of work come to the fore each time. At this stage, the research is more concerned with how people’s geography and cultural context affect their shouting. Each version of Shouting Match responds to the common situation in many public spaces – everything has to be turned ‘full up’. Nothing is quiet. Everything is exaggerated. Contemplation is not good for consumerism; it is too slow and quiet. In effect, these competing voices provide an apt metaphor for our commercial culture, and their specific manifestations and effects are researched in each version in relation to the particular cultural location.

Visually, India Shouting Match is therefore made up of the actual vocal combat and insights into specific Bangalore characters who visit a park. The research builds strongly on a ‘local’ idea of behaviour in terms of the shout. Every discrete version reveals striking cultural differences; each shows how people behave when asked to ‘let go’. Their faces – in pain, anger, struggle, insanity, defeat and victory – all reveal something of their particular context. Each work through emotional topology reveals difference at many levels.