Toothache (Sameeha Elwan)

Jane Benson

Summary

The artist has written out a short story by Sameeha Elwan, a writer and poet living in Palestine, then cut out the words, apart from the syllables that form the sounds ‘do re mi fa sol la ti do’. This scale of notes, the solfège, is used in the teaching of western music. The sound excavated from the story has then been sung by mezzo soprano Hai-Ting Chinn. The story tells of the difficulties in obtaining even simple things such as dental treatment when one is designated as ‘stateless’. The .wav sound file plays alongside the 6 sheets of excavated paper, which are framed in white against a white background. Only the pencilled and cut sheets of paper, and the recorded sound file form the work, the frame and backboard and music-playing equipment (i-pod supplied with the work) are not designated as part of the work by the artist. The paper used is 'Arches platine' and the pencil 2B.

Display Label

Toothache (Sameeha Elwan) 2017 Jane Benson Hand-cut paper, graphite, sound Jane Benson has meticulously hand-written out a short story by Sameeha Elwan, a writer and poet living in Palestine, then cut out the words, apart from the syllables that form the sounds ‘do re mi fa sol la ti do’. This scale of notes, the solfège, is used in the teaching of western music. Benson describes this process as ‘searching for the tone of exile, and for the potential music of Elwan’s prose’. She collaborated with New-York based mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, who sings the notes excavated from the story. The story, Toothache in Gaza, tells of the difficulties in obtaining even simple things such as dental treatment when one is designated as ‘stateless’. Benson is from Macclesfield and lives in New York. Gift of the Manchester Contemporary Art Fund: Christian Anderton; James & Katie Eden; Pablo Flack & David Waddington; Mark Garner; Mark Hawthorn; Thom Hetherington & Sophie Helm; Alison Loveday;Jeremy & Jane Roberts; Howard Ratcliffe & Melissa Ratcliffe ; Andrew Spinoza; Martyn & Val Torevell