POLLYANNA
Sore Throat (Magang Lalamunan)
Fruitmarket 45 Market St, Edinburgh EH1 1DF, UK
Opening event: Thursday 9 November, 6pm - 8pm
Exhibition: Friday 10 - Sunday 12 November, 11am - 6pm daily
Book a ticket for the opening event, or drop in any time to the exhibition
Sore Throat (or Magang Lalaluman in Tagalog) is moving image and performance work produced by Pollyanna, and co-created by Davide Bugarin and Adam Castle, that features an especially created interactive technology.
Sore Throat (or Magang Lalaluman in Tagalog) is a new interactive moving image work that explores the impact of sound overheard through walls. It examines how this has affected queer people and space in the Philippines, where the interpretation of sounds has been impacted by monstrous mythology, colonisation and gentrification. The work is filmed in portrait and features new music by Manila-based band Kalye Teresa. Presented in a three-day exhibition in the Fruitmarket’s Warehouse.
Produced by Pollyanna, and co-created by Davide Bugarin and Adam Castle, the work features an especially created interactive technology. The piece builds on Pollyanna’s work in live queer cabaret performance where a host invites the audience to make noise — cheering, shouting, singing. In Sore Throat, the audience in the gallery makes noises as conducted by the onscreen performer as they move through vertically-shifting theatrical spaces.
Drawing on this breaking of the ‘fourth wall’ of moving image, the work investigates the phenomenon of how we interpret sounds that we hear through physical walls. Building on recent research and Davide Bugarin’s experiences, the work looks at how Spanish colonisers used monstrous myths against queer people. This includes, influencing understandings of animal noises heard through walls in the Philippines to be interpreted as those of queer monsters. The work also looks at how nightlife and queer performance spaces in the Philippines (as well as in Edinburgh and around the world) are threatened by their sounds being heard through neighbouring walls.
What to expect in the gallery:
At the 9 Nov opening there will be an opportunity to view the work over the course of the opening, although there may be staggered viewing, you will be able to wait and have refreshments in the cafe.
The experience is 15–20 minutes long, and as an audience member you will sometimes need to make noises as guided by the film in order for it to proceed.
There will be seating provided.
The film is in multiple languages, with subtitles provided throughout in English.
The technology is brand new, and Pollyanna are keen to continue to develop and improve the software. You may be asked to optionally provide feedback.