DELIRIUM PART ONE: DEATH (The Breakdown). (Photo: Bridget Casey) “Make space to think about that which has died,” begins Lydia Lunch initially of DELIRIUM PART ONE: DEATH (The Breakdown), a brand new multi-media set up by filmmaker and artist Michelle Handelman up via January 20 at New York’s signs and symbols gallery. On three projections spanning the viewer’s peripheral imaginative and prescient are performances by Lunch in addition to the choreographic duo FlucT and dancers; the rating, by Jack Dangers and Pharmakon, blends digital drones, pulses and rhythmic stabs with breath and guttural sounds — “the cacophony of grief,” says Lunch. Together, the work is each a departure for Handelman and the formidable begin of a brand new cycle. Despite the presence of Lunch’s voiceover, which begins the piece and returns solely briefly on the finish, the piece is much less tied to textual content than her earlier Hustlers & Empire, bypassing the dialogic because it isolates the viewer inside the electrical void of its funereal house. Yet, as all the time with Handelman’s work, there exists a pointy theoretical intent behind its sensory assault. The work, she writes, “envisages altered states of consciousness as means of resisting capitalist ideals of production, transfiguring the body and interrogating desire through a visceral, cinematic framework that refuses the production of meaning.”
Handelman has appeared within the pages of Filmmaker a number of instances over time, discussing her function documentary BloodSisters and in a 2018 essay describing the development of her work from the movie to artwork worlds. We sat collectively within the indicators and symbols gallery house on Houston Street to observe the brand new set up after which talk about its origination, Handelman’s collaboration with Lunch, the position of philosophy in her work and, lastly, her plans for its subsequent three chapters.
Filmmaker: I’d like to start out with that Roland Barthes quote out of your program notes: ”The voice loses its origin. The writer enters into his personal dying. Writing begins.” Why did you select this quote, and does it reference your inventive course of, the expertise you hope the viewer has or each?
Handelman: It’s actually humorous you carry that up as a result of this morning I used to be enthusiastic about the different Roland Barthes quote that was actually significant to me in making this piece, which we took out of the press launch as a result of I used to be loading it with too many quotes. The different quote is: “A light without shadow generates an emotion without reserve.” That quote was actually vital to me as a lot of this piece is concerning the company of sunshine. I contacted my good friend, the filmmaker and translator Keith Sanborn, who’s my go-to regarding all issues French, and requested him, “How do you interpret this quote?” We each got here to this conclusion that Barthes was speaking concerning the relationship between gentle and energy, and that the ability that gentle has can obliterate all linear, logical thought and put you on this state of never-ending emotion that simply retains giving and rising. There’s no begin to it, there’s no finish to it. That quote is basically vital to me for this piece as a result of I’m utilizing gentle as a communicator and an agitator. Obviously gentle is the supply of all cinema, however on this case, it is usually an actor and a personality in and of itself. And it’s not very benevolent.
Filmmaker: So gentle reveals and illuminates but in addition blinds and assaults.
Handelman: Exactly. I’ve edited the sunshine to be very assaultive on the viewer as a result of I’m attempting to create an expertise of delirium, an precise visceral expertise of getting outdoors one’s thoughts and solely inhabiting one’s physique— letting the sunshine transfer your physique in numerous methods.
Filmmaker: And what concerning the Barthes quote on the press launch?
Handelman: “The voice loses its origin. The author enters into his own death. Writing begins.” That quote was vital personally, as I used to be enthusiastic about the way in which artwork calls for the artist step apart and let the work reveal what it needs to be, and it was additionally an inspiration in enthusiastic about Lydia, and the way I used to be positioning Lydia within the piece. Lydia, after all, is called an iconic No-Wave musician, however I believe her biggest energy is as a spoken phrase artist, and that’s the place Lydia and I actually linked by way of our lives — with literature and poetry being our life drive in a roundabout way. But for this piece, I wished to one way or the other erase her voice but have its energy nonetheless there. And in order that was why this quote turned vital. If you lose the voice, each bodily and philosophically, after which the author dies, you do away with your ego in a roundabout way, that’s when writing begins. That is when the artwork reveals itself.
And so what stays for me on this piece is the ability of the breath. I knew early on that I wished to make use of quite a lot of physique sounds, respiratory, grunts. I didn’t need to make one thing that appeared like a music video with Lydia, or have or not it’s just like different works of Lydia doing a spoken phrase efficiency. So that was an enormous problem. How do you’re employed with somebody who’s a recognized entity, and significantly somebody who has such a big persona, and shift it from its middle? How do you retain but erase the long-lasting?
Filmmaker: How did the type of the work change or develop via your collaboration with Lydia? Did the shape change fairly a bit, or does it signify your conception from the start?
Handelman: This visceral, multichannel, disembodied kind was one thing I envisioned since I began ruminating on this venture in 2017. But in the beginning, I didn’t think about Lydia to be a part of the equation. When I obtained funding via Creative Capital in 2019, that was once I truly began work on it. At that cut-off date, it was simply an concept, a paragraph, a few sentences. I knew I wished to make one thing that was totally different from what I’ve been making by way of dialogue and texts. I wished to do away with all of that. I wished to create a bit that was all sound and lightweight and our bodies speaking in a roundabout way. From the start, I knew I used to be going to work with dancers, and I knew I used to be going to work with aggressive gentle and sound, after which fuck with it in post-production. I had divided it into 4 totally different sections: Euphoria, Sleep, Death, and Control. But when the pandemic hit I put the venture to the facet. I got here again to it in 2022 after coping with quite a lot of loss and dying, and I spotted that the Death part wanted to be the primary one to assault. I imply, I didn’t have a selection. In a means, engaged on this dying part saved my life. But I used to be nonetheless having a tough time discovering an entry level.
I had recognized Lydia for many years, however we actually solely turned mates over the previous few years. She had informed me that she cherished my work, and wished to be in considered one of my tasks, in order that was all the time at the back of my head. And then it simply hit me, possibly that is the venture I ought to work with Lydia on. When I requested her to be within the venture, she stated sure immediately. And that was my inspiration! She gave me a bunch of her texts and music, however I knew I didn’t need to use something that was beforehand recorded. We began to trade texts. I stated, “Look, I’m probably gonna do a lot of repetitive stuff with your breath, I may even break down syllables. I might not have you say anything but just breathe and perform these gestures and interact with different types of materials.” And she stated, “Great, I get it.” There was no different dialogue together with her about it.
One factor that did change through the pandemic, and once I determined to work with Lydia, was that I began to jot down once more, which was one thing I used to do much more of. So whereas initially I didn’t need have any voiceover, or spoken phrase of any variety, once I got here again to creating the venture, I knew it was actually vital to me to have spoken phrases within the piece. There was one thing I wanted to say that wanted to be stated via phrases, so I wrote the monologue for Lydia. And then as I used to be enhancing that collectively, I spotted that seeing her ship this monologue was too standard. I needed to erase her face, her physique, her bodily presence from her studying of the fabric, and that this disembodied voice would carry as a lot energy as her bodily sounds carry in a while within the piece when she’s heaving and respiratory.
It was an actual problem to determine how I used to be going to remain true to my unique concept of getting this visceral work that was nearly breath, and shattering our bodies and assaulting gentle, after which incorporate this spoken phrase. So I made a decision I might current it as a prologue in the beginning with pictures of sunshine fog. So the prologue units the stage, the political and private grounding, after which when the prologue ends, the efficiency begins.
Filmmaker: At what level did the dance group FlucT enter the venture, and the way did you envision the form of dialogue that happens between them and Lydia?
Handelman: As I beforehand talked about, I knew I wished to work with dancers from the start and my dream was to work with FlucT as I used to be such a fan of their work. But I didn’t know them personally, and it wasn’t clear in the event that they have been nonetheless working collectively, as a result of at this level Monica Mirabile and Sigrid Lauren, who’re FlucT, had gone their separate methods, with every doing their very own choreographic tasks. It’s fascinating as a result of often I do know all of the folks I need to work with, and it simply comes collectively without delay. But this venture got here piece by piece. It was fall of 2022 when Lydia signed on. She was the primary piece of the puzzle. And then I needed to discover my strategy to FlucT by asking mates if anybody knew them. We shot with Lydia in April, 2023, and some weeks earlier than that, I lastly obtained in contact with FlucT. They got here to my studio the week earlier than we shot Lydia, after which they have been on board. I gave them tons of notes, outlines for all of the totally different sections, lists of gestures and sounds. They choreographed hours of fabric that will likely be used within the later iterations of this piece. Their work is superb, nonetheless you’ll solely see a portion of it on this piece on dying with Lydia.
How did I do know they might work collectively? I didn’t! I simply had this concept of getting Lydia on her personal display, whereas surrounded by a number of screens of dancers. Lydia’s power is like an anvil, an anchor — it’s actually heavy and it doesn’t transfer lots— the ability emanates from her. I wished dancers who would transfer in distinction to Lydia, frenetic and unruly, vibrating on one other stage — not essentially illustrating however embodying what had been stated within the prologue. How do you embody grief? How do you embody types of systemic oppression? How do you embody this intense management that society places upon you? Or this lack of management that one feels when coping with nice loss, or feeling like one has no company on the planet. There have been all these states of being that I wished the dancers to inhabit, and I used to be simply hoping it will all work collectively! (laughs)
Filmmaker: How do you collaborate along with your DP, Ed David?
Handelman: Ed, my cinematographer, is unimaginable, and he’s modified my work a lot. We’ve been working collectively since 2007 after we shot Dorian, A Cinematic Perfume. We have an unstated shorthand and understanding for each other, since we’ve labored collectively for such a very long time. Ed is aware of find out how to rework my imaginative and prescient, to search out the sunshine, discover the angles, even higher than I had imagined. Ed is the one one on set who is totally irreplaceable. He has this swish means, not solely with digicam motion, however in the way in which he lights. I barely had any storyboards for this piece. Normally I’ve storyboards for each scene, however the choreography got here to collect in a really compressed quantity of house and there was no time to plan the whole lot. I noticed just one rehearsal with the dancers, and Ed wasn’t even there for that. Normally, we might watch the dance rehearsals collectively, make notations on how lighting, digicam actions — you already know, the same old stuff, however we didn’t have that for this piece. I stated to Ed, “We’re going to have to wing it,” and he responded, “Yeah! Let’s do it!” He’s up for something and is a complete gear geek.
But how do I work with Ed? The working joke on set is, “When Michelle says cut, don’t turn off the camera! Shoot everything.” Because, you now, these small, interstitial moments when somebody breaks out of character may be so stunning and so revealing.
Filmmaker: I’m all the time fascinated by the way you marry principle and large concepts inside work that may be very experiential and visceral and at instances is proof against a viewer’s try and codify which means.
Handelman: That’s actually vital to me, figuring out that viewers can enter the work with out figuring out any of the references. The analysis is there for me, as a map, however the viewer will get to search out their very own means via the labyrinth. They don’t want my map. I’m attempting to create a cinematic expertise which forces the viewer to make their very own which means as a result of, you already know, that’s the problem of residing. It’s actually vital to me that somebody can are available and sit with considered one of my works, haven’t any clue about any of my sources, but can discover themselves resonating with what they see and listen to. I consider my work as functioning like a virus within the sense that it will get inside your system, form of lodges itself in your bloodstream and turns into part of you. That’s the last word objective. Everything is a technique, a software in service of this concept. In specific, I exploit of low frequency sound and flickering gentle to get deep contained in the viewer and and hopefully push them right into a destabilizing state the place they should wrestle to search out their very own middle inside the piece.
Filmmaker: At what level within the course of do you expertise that meaning-finding course of your self? Is it whereas making the piece, or after, maybe, that you simply perceive why you wished to make this form of expression at this second in your life?
Handelman: Well, I might say each. That course of that we’re speaking about —being unstable, discovering your personal floor, attempting to make which means, is one thing I’m all the time conscious of whereas making a bit. Because I’m continuously questioning my position as a tradition maker, and attempting to grasp each the necessity to categorical myself, and what wants to be expressed. For this venture I had a sense I wished to current, nevertheless it was merely a sense, one thing very intangible and ever-shifting, and I wasn’t certain how I used to be going to manifest that feeling via pictures and sound. In reality, through the pandemic I began to suppose extra about eliminating pictures, how we as a tradition already had a glut of pictures that appeared meaningless, and so I began to suppose extra about expressing myself simply via sound and lightweight. But as anybody who’s seen my work is aware of, I’m a picture whore, I’m all about picture overload. That’s why I work with a number of screens as a result of one display isn’t sufficient! But for somebody like me to surrender the picture is sort of a junkie attempting to kick—it’s not straightforward, or perhaps a cheap request! So for me the problem was determining find out how to interject abstraction whereas maintaining this attractive bodily imagery.
That course of was a journey of discovery and an actual problem. I couldn’t simply begin enhancing with “scene one,” so to talk. I arrange 9 layers of footage in my timeline and watched them concurrently. Then I spent hours simply watching, seeing which moments have been talking to at least one one other. I had concepts upfront of what I believed would work with what, however ultimately, you simply have a look at the fabric and see comes out of it. But it was actually scary to spend all this cash and never know what you’re going to finish up with. Like, “what if I blow all this money and it really sucks?” I do know that’s a horribly business means to have a look at issues, and clearly this isn’t a business venture, however you already know, you’re given a giant chunk of cash and also you need it to be what you need it to be. You need it to achieve success. But in the event you don’t have a script, in the event you’re solely working with a sense, it’s a scary place to be. But I do know that I might solely have made this work now, at this stage in my profession, as a result of I’ve been working lengthy sufficient to know that even when I don’t know what I’m doing, I do know what I’m doing. I’ve confidence.
Filmmaker: Another query impressed by the textual content has to do with the phrase “transgression.” As you write, the venture positions “transgression as a necessary state of knowing or unknowing within the brutalizing context of necropolitical violence and collective grief.” You’ve been making transgressive work and work coping with transgression for practically 40 years. But this work is arriving at a time when the which means of the phrase “transgression” is being outlined in another way by totally different teams of individuals. Within the context of this piece, what does transgression imply to you?
Handelman: I might say my work again within the ’80s and ’90s was much more transgressive than my work now as a result of the tradition has caught as much as these of us who have been confronting and celebrating radical intercourse and shifting types of gender 40 years in the past. But after all that’s to not say this stuff aren’t nonetheless taboo, and clearly there are nonetheless many teams of individuals nonetheless attempting to silence us. But I believe the phrase “transgression,” just like the phrases “underground” or “radical,” has misplaced its energy as a result of it’s been commodified by the white supremacist industrial complicated and offered again to customers. It is now not a place claimed by the outlaw. It’s a style.
Before utilizing the phrase now, I all the time return to the dictionary definition. It means “an act that goes against a law, rule, or code of conduct; an offense” To transgress means that there’s a border, a line—be it social, political, or non secular—and there are nice penalties in the event you cross that line. But as all transgressors know, there may be additionally nice freedom and data if you cross that line.
In Delirium, using transgression is each embedded inside the building of the work, which transgresses the road between the cinema display and viewer, and it additionally represents the transgressions of myself, and the folks inside the piece, and the work that we do each day simply to outlive in a world that doesn’t need us to exist. How transgression is critical for not solely our survival, however to thrive. I’m additionally enthusiastic about the road between figuring out and unknowing. And how we’re continuously transgressing backwards and forwards between what we all know, what we expect we all know, what we expect different folks know, and what different folks suppose they learn about us.
Filmmaker: Delirium Part One: Death (The Breakdown) is the primary half of a bigger venture. Can you inform us a bit about how that bigger venture will manifest?
Handelman: Yes, this can be a launch for the larger venture. Delirium in its entirety will likely be a 90-minute, multiscreen reside movie expertise, with dancers and musicians. Each part features a central performer whose personal work excavates the darkish and uncomfortable areas of political disintegration and circuits of want via doom aesthetics. I’m on the brink of shoot the subsequent part with composer and visible artist M. Lamar, whose unimaginable work defines the Negrogothic, and there are two extra performers who’re on my want record, however but to be confirmed. Keeping my fingers crossed.
