2010
4-channel video
HD, color, sound
36 minutes
plywood, projection, monitors
Dimensions variable

Parole is a four-channel video installation composed of semi-autonomous video “scenes” that accumulate to form a narrative without a story. Focused on a central character who records sound but never speaks, Parole teases out multiple relationships between politics and desire, intimacy and estrangement, speaking and listening, voice and body.

The video installation is composed of footage of performed events in New York, London, Frankfurt and Istanbul, Turkey as well as staged footage of this sound recorder in various in private and semi-public locations.

Production Credits
Sound Recorder: Becca Blackwell
Speakers (office): Gladys Girabantu, Lea Robinson, Peggy Shaw, Elizabeth Whitney, Nikki Zialcita
Speaker (classroom): Lauren Berlant*
Speakers (public performances)**:
Frankfurt: Sharon Hayes, Cornelia Kaus, Marie-Jolin Köster
London: Sharon Hayes
Istanbul: Gizem Aksu, Seyhan Arman, Tuna Erdem, Barış Ger, Sanem İlçe, Sema Semih, Aybike
Esin Tumluer
New York: Oliverio Rodriguez
Dancer: Nikki Zialcita

*Lauren Berlant’s lecture was written and developed by Berlant.
**Performance texts were written by Sharon Hayes.
Additional textual material includes: James Baldwin, from his lecture at UC Berkeley, April 1974.