Soul-Blind

Description:

Soul-Blind was a forty-five-minute performance by Edward Lam that examined the production and consumption of images, interrogating ideas of subjectivity, authorship, simulation, and use value. The work was structured by two rhetorical monologues that discussed the nature of identity, truth, lies, constructions of the self, and the unrepresentable. 

To begin, Luther Hansraj delivered a scripted monologue that troubled the definition of entertainment. Throughout his monologue, Hansraj, a Black actor, repeatedly referred to “Mister Lam” as the author and director of the statements he was compelled to perform—highlighting dynamics of control, race, and mediated identity. Hansraj performed on an elevated platform in front of projected text, including mirrored and reversed words that corresponded with his speech.

Following a brief interlude, Lam appeared in a suit, smoking a cigar on stage while delivering a monologue on the nature of artifice and the self, referencing abstract visuals playing on television monitors in the space. Later in the performance, Hansraj returned to the stage, performing as a “caricature” of his earlier self, while illustrated portraits of him and Lam were projected behind him. To conclude, Hansraj was joined on stage by Lam and artist Deborah Moss, who held a piece of wood above him as he drilled holes into it, before delivering his final lines.

Throughout the piece, themes of reality, truth, and mimicry were staged as a series of recursive gestures—an attempt to reach the “soul” of something through repetition, contradiction, and theatrical artifice.

Presented as part of Luminous Performances.

Video documentation is available upon request.

Curated by Glenn Lewis.