Podium
This project introduces voice as a way to activate and mark space. An articulated, mobile podium with an oversized megaphone is navigated through the host city, assembled and used to present a monolog. The spoken text, accented by scripted gestures that support or contradict the intended meaning of the words, remains the same but shifts in meaning as it interrupts the city and creates incidental, unpredictable audiences.
The audience becomes witness to both the proclamation and the labored action of transporting, assembling and disassembling the sculptural podium. The costume of embroidered coveralls with a tie confounds my identity and further pushes the question of civic sanction, real use, symbolic function, futility and labor. I perform Podium for eight hour shifts.
