The Tableau of Two Throats

Video duration: 23:40
Edited by Tobias Allen.

Watch The Tableau of Two Throats on Vimeo here.

O throat! O trembling throat!

ONE THROWS THEIR HEAD BACK, AS THE OTHER REACHES FOR THE CLIMACTIC HIGH NOTE, BUT NO SOUND COMES OUT OF THE FIRST. BOTH MOUTHS ARE OPEN, BOTH HEADS ARE BACK, BOTH SETS OF EYES ARE CLOSED, ONE OF THE VOICES IS ALL WE CAN HEAR. BOTH ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE.

ONE LIP SYNC’S TO THE VOICE OF THE OTHER, REPEATEDLY.

THEY BOTH LIP SYNC TO THE RECORDINGS OF THEIR OWN VOICES THAT EVENTUALLY CREMATE INTO THE RESONANT FREQUENCIES OF THE ROOM.

THEY BOTH LIP-SYNC TO THE VOICE OF THE CORPSE.
 
 
                                                                                                                                                       “LISTENING SPEAKS”   BARTHES

THEY ARE BOTH OPEN AND CLOSED TOGETHER
AT THE SAME TIME.
 

PASSED BACK AND FORTH
LOOPED RECORDS OF BOTH
 
TILL
NEITHER THROAT IS ONLY OPEN
NEITHER THROAT IS ONLY CLOSED
 
AND
BOTH ARE OPEN                                                                                                                               
BOTH ARE CLOSED. 

                                                                                                                                                                 “THE THROAT ALSO LISTENS”                                                                                                    KOSTENBAUM                                          
 

"THE SUBTEXT OF TRAVIATA REMINDS US THAT PLEASURE WILL KILL VIOLETTA AS SURELY AS, IN HOMOPHOBIC SCENARIOS OF AIDS, IT HAS KILLED GAYS”
              IS IT A CERTAINTY? AM I DOOMED TO DIE? IS THIS WHAT HISTORY IS TELLING US?
 
THE TWIN THUGS OF DEATH AND SILENCE.
 

 I LEARN OF MYSELF BACKWARDS – I UNDERSTAND MYSELF IN RELATION TO THE PAST BEHIND ME IN ORDER TO LOOK FORWARD INTO MY FUTURE.
WHEN I LISTEN TO A RECORDING, I MOVE BACKWARD IN TIME TO AN IMAGINED DAY OF RECORDING.

The Tableau of Two Throats is the third work in Allen's sonic performance series following Mourn You in the Seen (2022) and The Corpse, The Voice, The Faggot and We (2021).

Tobias Allen

Tobias Allen is an artist based in Pōneke. Working in performance, video and sound, their work examines the broad and difficult relationships between grief, death and queerness with a focus of deep-set human emotional states to be encountered within these topics.

https://www.tobiasallen.net/