ray langenbach : gesture, stutter, state


Performance is ephemeral, sometimes invisible, but most often enters our consciousness (our mental-scape) through its repetition, and, once this happens, is distinguished and frozen in language. Our language system for the most part is geared to the reproduction of established conditions or states of being, which appear to us through acts of recognition, which requires repetition. It is through repetition that predicates are transformed into nouns, that is into replicable states, rather than remaining conditions of flux. We like nouns. They provide security, identity, stability. We speak of the beauty of the flower's bloom rather than its blooming; the stream rather than streaming. Despite Buddha's or Lao Tse's exhortations to the contrary, we focus on states of being rather than becoming, appearances rather than ceaseless change.

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