Played as they lay
Spier Light Art, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2021


Made in a one-bedroom apartment during lockdown in Narrm/Melbourne, Played as they lay is a video work which sees a series of moths read like braille to compose an accompanying score. The music traces the path of the moths as found in pantry traps, transferring the configuration of forms into notes placed on a stave. The mass grave of moths become literal markers, like holes punched into scroll piano sheet music, and are digitally performed by a violoncello, piano and contrabass. The work is looped, breaking down time into shifting frames manually sliding across the screen—referencing the medium of film and early cinema. The moths become a conduit to surface ethical problems and ambivalence while resonating with the contemporary experience of living through 2020.

Played as they lay, 2021, single channel projection stills, Spier Light Art, Stellenbosch, SA. Photography: Spier Light Art.



Special thanks to Spier Light Art for presenting this project as part of Spier Light Art Festival 2021.

March, 2021