BEK Opening Week: Roy Claire Potter: Shit Out Here Purple
Published
Saturday 17 February
19:30
BEK, C. Sundts gate 55, 9th floor
Free and open for all (no registration required!)
Titled after the effect that mountain bilberries have on digestion, this new performance by artist and writer Roy Claire Potter responds to the linguistic protocols of amateur shortwave radio cultures, and how making ‘contact’ – or QSO – is centred and differentiated from ordinary conversation. A sparsely arranged audio collage brings new and archival radio recordings together with modular synthesised sounds, and newly written spoken libretto that experiments with a narrative of fieldwork operations, to produce a jerky, inarticulate reflection on distressed or intense desires for communicative contact.
For the premiere of Shit Out Here Purple, Roy has produced a booklet of detachable drawings that riff on the counter-cultural tradition of Eyeball Cards, made and shared at in-person meetings during the 1980s by users of the then-illegal Citizens Broadcast radio in the United Kingdom.
The work is commissioned by BEK, and started with Potter doing a two-week studio residency at BEK in July 2023. The commissioned work is part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
Accessibility
BEK’s space unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. Please send us an email at bek@bek.no if you’re using a wheelchair, and we’ll do our best to facilitate your needs. Our space has all gender toilet facilities. Service dogs are welcome. We also provide the option of a quiet room.
Images: 1) Roy Claire Potter on stage at Counterflows 2022 2) Bilberry Transmission (2024), Courtesy of the artist