Chaos

2008

Performance

The Psychology of Fear, 198 Gallery, London.

Synopsis

Selected reading from the script read out by the artist and performers, synced with soundscape as part of the exhibition The Psychology of Fear.

Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quoted by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein)

As I read, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition. I found myself similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read and to whose conversation I was a listener. I sympathized with and partly, understood them. I was dependent on none and related to none. `The path of my departure was free,' and there was none to lament my annihilation. My, person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?

Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy, and prosperous, guarded by, the especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature, but I was wretched, helpless, and alone.

(Frankenstein, Mary Shelley)

This meant not only learning the English language but also mastering the metalanguage, the verbal and nonverbal codes of interaction, the different systems, and styles of communication.

(Chaos, Maria Kheirkhah)

There are no walls here, it took me years to realise that other kinds of walls, mainly invisible, existed I had to learn about their presence, respect their sovereignty, abide by their rules. I could not neglect them, trespass them. I could not disregard them.

(Veils and Words, Farzaneh Milani)