Welcome to the second video of I AM NOT ON TOUR. This is an ongoing group project (or rather, a conversation between myself and the other members of my band) responding to not being able to perform on stage, and not being able to be together. It is not an art project as much as a project about what the lack of a communal, physical art space brings forth (and taketh away).
In these clips we will attempt to use elements of the show we are not performing right now (The Practice of Love). In this show, we work a lot with hands, because hands perform much love (and art) in our daily lives, touching, writing, creating, bringing people together. Now, washing your hands is an act of love.
Didn’t Edvard Munch write that he didn’t know where his hand ends and the paintbrush begins? I remember this quote vaguely from my university days, and it stuck with me. This was how I wanted to feel about writing.
I guess today’s equivalent is to not know where your hand ends and the hand sanitizer begins.
The ritual of cleaning has made me think a lot about what it means to be clean over the past month (you can’t spend all that time just singing Happy Birthday). Clean from germs (and coronavirus) of course - do you ever really know when your body is clean enough? When you are careful enough? - but also clean in a political or religious context… Clean as in not taking that fee from a festival sponsored by an oil company. Clean as in innocent. Cleared of all charges. Clean as in not to blame for your own desires (blame the object).
I am probably explaining too much here, but hopefully nobody reads description boxes anyway. Be safe out there, stay calm and wash your hands.
Filmed by: Jenny Berger Myhre, Vivian Wang, Natali Abrahamsen Garner, Håvard Volden and Jenny Hval
Edit: Jenny Berger Myhre