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The Brick Dialogues

by Rolf Hughes, Rachel Armstrong

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1.
ex:lab - Caustic Ophelia 07:48
lyrics
Caustic Ophelia [from The Brick Dialogues] – Let us acknowledge it. [Long pause] – A spore of pollen inside a balloon. – Glass of fashion, mould of form. – A drum inside a bloody room. – The whole world becoming stone. – Did you think it might rise? – I wanted to sink. – Here’s rue for you; there’s none for me. – The eyes of poor Ophelia. Blasted ecstatic. – Whatever worm eats or impregnates– – I sucked that honey– – under that bed– – his breezy vows – sweet bells jangling – caressing my river’s silvery skin – disordering the petals you plucked – these petals I plucked from the wind – mulching – always something turning to rot, or–? [Pause] – The blue bacteria. [Pause] – Blasted mulch. – She’s drying out. – Dying to dry out. – Caustic wit? [Pause] – Eat me. It’s heat-seeking. – An open coffin within which many rivers. [Pause] – Heartbreak hotel. Caustic soda. Copper. [Pause] Ophelia! – What? [Pause] – Nothing. – Nothing will come of nothing! [Pause] – Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies. – Good night. [Pause] – This artificial heart. – What of it? – It’s not nothing. [Pause] – Good night, good night.
2.
Caustic Ophelia Re-mixed 05:46
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3.
Caustic Ophelia (Orpheus Remix 20.4.23) 04:28
lyrics
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Caustic Ophelia – Let us acknowledge it. – A spore of pollen inside a balloon. – A drum inside a bloody room. – The whole world becoming stone. – Did you think it might rise? – I wanted to sink. – Here’s rue for you; there’s none for me. – Your eyes, poor Ophelia! Blasted. Ecstatic! – Whatever worm eats or impregnates– – I sucked that honey– – under that bed– – his breezy vows – sweet bells jangling – caressing my river’s silvery skin – disordering the petals you plucked – these petals I plucked from the wind – mulching – turning to rot, or–? – The blue bacteria. – Blasted mulch. – She’s drying out. – Dying to dry out. – Heat-seeking. – An open coffin within which many rivers– – Heartbreak hotel. Caustic soda. Copper. Ophelia! – What? – Nothing. – Nothing will come of nothing! – Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies. – Good night. – This artificial heart. – What of it? – It’s not nothing. – Good night, good night. Text: Rolf Hughes

about

The Brick Dialogues delve into the ‘character’ of metabolisms via Shakespearian heroines who are typically suspended between life and death. The dialogues are transgressive, optimistic, whispering about the eternal exchanges of renewal that link the cycles of life and death such as love, fertility, restlessness and the ‘emotionally charged’ nature of matter in flux. Presenting a series of spoken exchanges between a living brick, as the basic unit of architecture, and a human, each dialogue addresses adaptation: to the use of resources within the units that produce ‘living’ systems (light, water, energy etc.), movement, their structural constraints (walls, geometry, matter), the processes taking place within this site (equilibrium/disequilibrium, conflict, struggle, and transformation), and, how they relate to their living communities and each other. This is captured in encounters between three formal elements: material artefacts, prose poetry/dialogue and sound recordings. The principle of composting, applied in both a metaphorical and material sense, celebrates co-creation and the degradation of origins via the micro-transformations of the composting process. The ‘speakers’ within the dialogues are programmed to utter irreconcilable languages and yet this co-existence, this tolerance of difference, itself becomes a resolution of suspended tension.

credits

released January 12, 2019

Prose poetry, sound art: Rolf Hughes.
Read by Rachel Armstrong & Rolf Hughes.

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ex:lab Ghent, Belgium

ex:lab creates new experimental practices, pedagogies and performances, often involving improvisations and/or collaborators who share a sense of indifference to conventions.

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