Silent Citizen
Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.
One of the
crucial steps in the Canadian immigration process is an English Language test,
which all applicants (regardless of their country of origin or first language)
must write. The use of the English language to deter access to immigration
based on the spoken word remains one of the ways that language continues to be
used to maintain a degree of racism within Canadian bureaucracy and beyond.
In this
installation Bambitchell invites viewers to playfully participate by taking the
language test themselves - in the performative style of karaoke. In doing so
they are required to follow a set of rigid rules and cues that tell them when
to speak and when they must remain silent. The results of the tests are
recorded, stored and played back throughout the course of the exhibition. As
more people speak into the microphone, and a variety of different voices are
archived, the sound of “proper” Canadian speech is rendered indiscernible. In
this way Silent Citizen reveals the impossibility of the
testing process to create a homogenized national subject, rather demonstrating
its existence as an arbitrary remnant of a colonial fabric that still needs to
be unraveled.
Participatory Sound and Video Installation
2014
Participatory Sound and Video Installation
2014
CREDITS
Technical and sound design by Heather Kirby.