Untitled (empathy/the mark of Cain)

2022
voice, ensemble (variable), recordings. 7m

One line of text set in three slow lists moving independently: voice sings vowels transcribed from my own reading, ensemble plays consonants (described on a spectrum from bright to dark), and recordings made at certain times of day are played back. The text is:

You have no brother in the slave when you say “O my brother”
— quoted in Frank B. Wilderson III, “‘Raw Life’ and the Ruse of Empathy,” 2013. Wilderson cites it only as an “Arabic proverb”; similar passages appear in the Talmud (e.g. in the Bava Kamma, 88a).

(note January 29, 2022)