Artwork: Bitter Fruits
Comissioned by Audiofemme and presented by Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY.
Bitter Fruits is an electronic song cycle exploring survival techniques that have developed in response to oppression and injustice within our government, society, and communities. There are intentional injustices and passive. Both have cultivated methods of coping so that marginalized people can function in their daily lives. Defined by Tina Campt in her Quiet Soundings: The Grammar of Black Futurity, these everyday tools, or the quotidian, are what black and brown people need to survive. Lunon defines “Bitter Fruits” as the gains reaped by marginalized people in the United States. The performance examines ideas of erasure and displacement and engages with tokenism, code-switching, and other forms of quotidian survival techniques. Lunon explores the feelings that emerge when these tools are put into action using a light-reactive custom synthesizer in the form of a 10-foot braided wig.
The braided wig represents the generational traditions of Black and Indigenous Americans. Historically, braids have mapped routes to freedom, held food and nourishment, and even defined societal classifications. In today’s culture, the lace front is now a symbol of expression, choice, and experimentation. In Lunon’s piece, the braided wig holds tokens and rice to represent the past and the photocells hard-wired to it serve as a way to give voice to her ancestors. The photocells are connected to an Arduino Uno and have two sides—one of a buzzy oscillator representing the suffocating voice of being unheard or unable to fully express truth and honesty in her Black experience, and the other is a soft-toned mode that represents the strength of resilience, harmony in community, and hope.
This piece has been workshopped as a solo piece at the New School with Levy Lorenzo’s Tech Forward series during the pandemic and was only available to be seen by other students and faculty. This is the world premiere as a full ensemble piece and open to the public.
Credits
Shara Lunon, Lesley Mok, Chris Williams, Lester St. Louis, Kalia Vandever, 13th Law
Contributions
Composer, Engineer, Vocalist