calculus of mouth

2018 Performance

Close view of a performer lying on their side directly across overlapping shards of broken mirror. Their cheek and temple are close to the mirrored surface, one eye directed downward, while both hands extend between flat and tilted pieces of glass. Reflections fragment parts of their face, fingers and arms across several shards.

Close view of a performer curled on their side directly on a dense field of broken mirrors. Their eyes are closed, torso curved inward and head turned toward the glass, with one arm extending across the mirrored surface and the other folded close to the body. Reflections break the body into partial images across the surrounding shards.

A performer kneels low over the long rectangular field of broken mirrors, their torso folded forward and both forearms extending across the glass. Their head is lowered, gaze directed toward the mirrored surface and lips closed, while a thin strand of saliva extends from the mouth toward the mirrors. Seated audience members are visible beyond the bounded mirror area in the background.

Photography: Mohammad Safkat Khan

"these pebble stones were here before me
these pebble stones were here before me
these pebble stones were here before me
these pebble stones were here before me
...."
Leman

calculus of mouth is corporeal research on history, memory, and witnessing, grounded in that which cannot be spoken about, that which cannot find a tongue and remains in silence and darkness. The performance asks how violence, memory, and political realities are carried, stored, and processed by the body, and whether the body can ever free itself from what it has witnessed and been exposed to.

Filling their mouth with pebble stones, Leman comes into contact with broken mirrors arranged as a long rectangle in the center of the space. They walk, sit, and lie on the broken mirrors. Keeping the pebble stones in their mouth for six hours, the artist transforms the mouth into a site of tension between speech and silence, testimony and impossibility. The performance ends with a reading of an intimate text written by the artist.