Gifts of the Spirit: Prophecy, Automatism and Discernment is Ron Athey's vision for an "automatic writing machine" brought to life in collaboration with the composer Sean Griffin as a performance / installation made up of 16 writers, six typists, a hypnotist, vocalists, and musicians. In this work, the artist "completes" his memoir ("Gifts of the Spirit") together in ecstatic communion with his collaborators. This living machine makes a tightly choreographed and scored visual spectacle bringing together writing, reading and listening into a layered performative action resulting in a collectively authored text and sound score. The deconsecrated cathedral of St. Vibiana provided the perfect venue for this work, which strips faith from ritual and presents the orchestration of ecstatic states as art.
Gifts of the Spirit was co-produced by VOLUME and independent curator Jennifer Doyle.
Photography Credit: Ben Gibbs