18 Stanzas Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle is a performance by artist Hanne Tierney, based on a Chinese epic poem of the same name written by Ts’ai Yen in 200 AD. This piece combines elements of puppetry, installation and dance, and fulfills the early modernist quest “to turn the theater into a seamless fusion of the visual arts and performance”.
Tierney will perform this piece with the help of an instrument of her own creation: a counterweight stringing system of 88 strings – the same number as there are keys on a keyboard. The strings are arranged against a wall and are performed very much like a musical instrument and in full view of the audience. Through this web of strings Tierney manipulates the materials and objects, which become her performers, into movement. These movements become intense emotional expressions.
