Grant Summary
Support for Soundproofed, a solo performance in a Mormon Church-funded mall in Utah as part of the artist’s ongoing Plural Wife Project.
Keywords
Artist Statement
Soundproofed is a performance informed by soundproofed architecture as well as unscientific tactics of listening. How do we hear what is deemed secret or invisible? What does a soundproofed building sound like? What is heard between the insulation and the sheetrock? These questions inform Soundproofed by exploring the radical act of listening and the possibility of hearing. Preliminary research for Soundproofed begins with listening to the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Broadway and Columbus in New York City and recording sounds heard through the soundproofed architecture. This piece is part of the ongoing Plural Wife Project (2008-present), exploring homosocial dynamics within the construct of early Mormon polygamy in relation to contemporary queer discourse around marriage, family, and non-heteronormativity. The Plural Wife Project is embedded in excavating personal history to understand my own identity as a queer woman and feminist with polygamous roots.
  • Kicking Up Dust 2014, Angela Ellsworth Courtesy of the artist.

  • Compounded 2009, Angela Ellsworth Courtesy of the artist.

  • Kicking Up Dust 2014, Angela Ellsworth Courtesy of the artist.

  • Stand Back 2011, Angela Ellsworth Courtesy of the artist.