Poker

(2001)

Two hands holding a variety of microphones scrape, scratch, pinch and poke eleven participants poker-faced in front of the camera.

Poker explores the relation between. It explores specifically the import of the face in framing relationships. The relation is performed at a number of levels, the performer’s hands activate the taciturn faces, they explore and sound them; the surface of the face is inscribed with the depth of the relation between the two involved in the performance—a depth measured by awkwardness. The viewer, in turn, is faced by this configured yet disfigured, alienated yet intimate exchange.

to face -face as a verb, a facing in touch, in sound… ocular proximity, closeupsoclose, playing the face, testing the haptic… loudyourface, loudface… noise facials… fissures in the relation—no longer face to face, but somewhere in between being caressed and prodded… poker face—no longer site of expression but site of being expressed… poker, wrinkler, scratcher, prickler, tickler… to hear the face (to make the face), wrinkle the face in sound… touching the loud gaze… scratch, slide, prick, tickle, rub… rhythm the face, loudlooks, noisylooks… louding the face…

Participants: Katie Bethune-Leamen, crys cole, Michel F. Côté, Anni Lawrence, André Éric Létourneau, Jonathan Parant, Leila Pourtavaf, Sam Shalabi, Marie-Douce St-Jacques, Alexandre St-Onge, Roger Tellier-Craig.

Reedit and remix of 2001 version made in 2023 for the Are (Sommes Sonnes) event.

Presentation History

• 2023 Québec (screening, Are (Sommes Sonnes), Avatar)

• 2008 Besançon (installation, Sale Sono, La Galerie d’art contemporain de Besançon)

• 2007 Seoul (installation, group show, TOTAL Museum)

• 2006 Montreal (installation, solo show, Galerie de l’UQAM)

• 2004 New York (installation, group show, Sculpture Center)

• 2003 Ottawa (performance, solo evening, Gallery 101)

• 2002 Reims (performance, Dimanche des curiosités/Fin de Novembre, Manège de Reims)

• 2002 Baltimore (performance, The Red Room)

• 2002 New York (screening + talk, Performance Studies International Conference, New York University)

• 2002 Brussels (installation, stuttermouthface/ Sonic Square, kaaitheaterstudios)

• 2002 Los Angeles (performance, Beyond Sound Festival, Beyond Baroque)

• 2002 Toronto (screening, 7a*11d International Festival of Performance, Art System)

• 2002 Winnipeg (performance, Send & Receive Festival, Ace Art)

• 2001 Montréal (performance, Tentacules.01/Code d’accès, Sala Rossa)

• 2001 Halifax (publication, video stills, Arts Atlantic Fall 2001)