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BINT
SOLVE ET COAGULA → عيب, Stage II: تبييض (The Whitening)
2023The second in BINT’s three-part immersive, multimedia ritual developed during her 2023 ISSUE Project Room residency. Rooted in collected shame testimonies from the SWANA diaspora and structured through Sufi sem’a traditions, this iteration embodies The Whitening, – the lunar stage of stripping down to bone and ash, where silver is formed, polished, and made to reflect. Attendees were suspended into a dream state experiencing this audio-visual piece in an immersive white studio, wall to wall projections synced to the looping drones, color and light.
Sound art, ritual performance and minimal drone using cassette tape loops, walkmans, guitar pedal, water, glass. 2023.
Running length: 39′ 28″ Date: 15 September 2023 Location: Williamsburg, NY
Running length: 39′ 28″ Date: 15 September 2023 Location: Williamsburg, NY
Spending spring and summer of her residency focused on a bare-bones approach, BINT has been deeply inspired by minimalist and drone pioneers Halim El-Dabh, Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela – finding form and methods of transportation within the loops of the simplest of drones and minimal arrangements.
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Notes from BINT on Stage II: تبييض (The Whitening):
As the transmutation process continues to unfold, we have moved into the second stage known as ‘The Whitening’ (تبييض), an inversion and growing from the dissolution encountered in 'Stage I: تسويد (The Blackening).' Through this inverse we remain amidst a-void; the white in many cultures still signifying death and mourning as we often equate with black. Here we find the naked bone, only white remaining after processes of decay. Here we find the ash of a long forgotten flame.
Alchemically, it is in this stage where silver metal is produced. To form silver requires a stripping down, a focus–a refinement of the fertile chaos in the prior stage. Silver, in its association with the moon, is a unique metal in its ability to be polished, receive and reflect an image.
Fitting to this, themes of soul polishing and repetition of holy words of power known as dhikr (translates to remembrance) are central to sem’a practices. In this, BINT will use voice, field recordings and cassette tape loops to emulate these alchemical processes of polishing and repetition, using these analog methods of memory looping as a means of receiving and reflecting collective experiences for the gathering.
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Notes from BINT on Stage II: تبييض (The Whitening):
As the transmutation process continues to unfold, we have moved into the second stage known as ‘The Whitening’ (تبييض), an inversion and growing from the dissolution encountered in 'Stage I: تسويد (The Blackening).' Through this inverse we remain amidst a-void; the white in many cultures still signifying death and mourning as we often equate with black. Here we find the naked bone, only white remaining after processes of decay. Here we find the ash of a long forgotten flame.
Alchemically, it is in this stage where silver metal is produced. To form silver requires a stripping down, a focus–a refinement of the fertile chaos in the prior stage. Silver, in its association with the moon, is a unique metal in its ability to be polished, receive and reflect an image.
Fitting to this, themes of soul polishing and repetition of holy words of power known as dhikr (translates to remembrance) are central to sem’a practices. In this, BINT will use voice, field recordings and cassette tape loops to emulate these alchemical processes of polishing and repetition, using these analog methods of memory looping as a means of receiving and reflecting collective experiences for the gathering.
