Desktop Compositions

Description:

As part of the opening event for her solo exhibition Cirrus, artist filmmaker Holly Márie Parnell presented Desktop Compositions (2014–) is an ongoing live video performance series, presented through the interface of a computer desktop. The work draws from over a decade of Parnell’s personal archives and collected internet detritus, with this iteration including samplings of pop songs about NATO and the EU by Mia Wennerstrand (as Kim Kaino Vieno), alongside fragments and sound samples from Graeme Arnfield and Frank Sweeney. The live performance also included contributions from drummer Phoebe Telfar and bass player Lucas Newhook, and ASL interpretation by Lisz Keallen.

Through rhythms of repetition and reassembly, Desktop Compositions acts as an inquiry into the chaos of our current moment and reflects on what forms might emerge in its place, asking: in a world that demands progress but offers little clarity, what does it mean to move forward? 

A recorded version of Parnell’s performance was staged as an installation in the Grand Luxe Hall from May 7 to 31, 2025.

Video documentation is available upon request.