Murmurings

by Catharine Cary & Daniëlle Davidson

Thanks to these covidious times, Catharine Cary (US/FR) and Daniëlle Davidson (NL) murmur life into telematic spaces using music, paint and spoken word.
Catharine Cary and Daniëlle Davidson, artists and improvisors, are zooming the limits of their art across two countries, three languages and on Atlantic beaches 1255 km apart.

The collaboration

Their collaboration started through the WHAT IIIF? Nowhere and Everywhere project – a diverse series of online telematic interdisciplinary improvisation sessions.  Their first drawing impromptu took Les Oiseaux Exotiques de Meissian and created instant works to replace a static image of a colored bird throughout the 30 minute piece.
This was in October 2020, and they started to meet weekly to draw and paint to the music of others.   In summer 2021, they moved their practice to their strengths, Catharine with words, Daniëlle with paint and both with improvisation.
 In French and English, bounty. 

Murmuring to Olivia Rosenthal, piece 2

Danielle Davidson and Catharine Cary, Murmurings, extrapolate Olivia Rosenthal’s To Leave with the Reindeer (2010) through an improvisation of spoken word and painted drawings.  These pieces of spoken word and painted drawings are intended as a virtual embodiment of Rosenthal’s « littérature exposée ».  They wish to honor the practice of Olivia Rosenthal by creating a literal tension between distance and adhesion — a light touch becoming lemon and salt for the analytical pieces, turning her stupendous words upside down.

whatiif nowhere & nowhere drawing impromptu 2021 may 27

Catharine and Daniëlle co-create the nomadic WHAT IIIF? (international indisciplinary improvisation festival) a research festival that asks the absurd question « Can improvisation be documented? «  Now it’s fifth year, it has given rise to many forms, one of which are drawing impromptus which provided the fertile ground for murmurings.