Julie Graves Krishnaswami

Sigh is installation consisting of

Video: A 5 ½ hour video of me transcribing the testimony that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford presented before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh; I am transcribing the testimony in a calligraphic script in a legal pad; the video is set to the sound of Dr. Blasey Ford’s breath, with the sound of her words from the testimony, removed; when the sounds of Dr. Blasey Ford’s breath are audible, quotes from the confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett referencing the Kavanaugh hearings are triggered to appear on the screen. The quotes are in Cheltenham Book font, which is the font used for Congressional materials. 

YouTube link for a video playlist. One-minute clip here.           

Installation: A brown, wooden desk with a stack of empty legal pads, my calligraphic transcription, a copy of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. 

Installed Participatory Element: On the desk, there is a sign with an invitation for the audience to sit at the desk and transcribe some of the testimony in one of the empty legal pads as they watch and listen to the video. I have provided pens and a sheet for people to leave their email addresses to receive information about how to view the transcript created in the exhibition.

The piece is about hearing and listening to a voice and person that was silenced for decades. Reading the testimony brings this to bear as Dr. Blasey Ford tells how the assault endured by Brett Kavanaugh impacted her life. My calligraphic transcription on a yellow legal pad bears the history of legal script, text, and history of sexual assault. The US government and legal system barely acknowledged sexual assault and violence against women (especially when power men or government officials are implicated). Indeed, Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony follows Anita Hill’s testimony. The quotes from the subsequent nomination hearing of Amy Coney Barrett demonstrate that Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony was ignored and her statements mischaracterized by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The video is filmed in historic black and white, referent to the history of sexual assault testimony offered by women and ignored by tribunals. 

The installation resembles the set where I completed the calligraphy. I installed a desk with an empty stack of empty legal pads, the notebooks filled with my calligraphic transcript, and Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony printed on which paper. There is a small placard with instructions inviting viewers to sit down at the desk, take one of the pens provided and transcribe some of the testimony in their handwriting. Transcribing—as a viewer listens and watches the video—creates an opportunity for her to meditate on Dr. Blasey Ford’s words and consider how she was listened to, by whom, how the viewer listens to her testimony, as well as how tribunals and officials listened to her and listen to women and members of marginalized communities, more generally. I want the viewer to have an experience as she pauses to consider the testimony, laboring in the act of physically forming letters and sentences.

Watch a recording of the Artist Talk at the Turner Center, Valdosta, GA here.

Derived from a combination of Venter meaning Belly and Loqui, meaning to speak, the practice of Ventriloquism dates back to ancient times when priests and prophets would conjure voices, claiming that spirits were trapped in the ground or in their bellies. This perspective of a voice trapped, contained, and cut off is key to Julie’s practice. By definition, ventriloquism breathes life into inanimate objects; Julie breathes life back into bodies that are being objectified.

However, instead of the entertaining repartee that characterizes traditional ventriloquists’ acts, Julie’s work points to the procedures of courtrooms, which silence other bodies.

Her performance video Sigh is a case in point! Here Julie transcribes the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh into a calligraphic script. Meanwhile, a sound-track of Ford’s testimony plays, but her words have been edited out. All we hear are the sounds of her breath, her sighs and spirit trapped and trying to be heard.

- Marie Shurkus, Professor, Maine College of Art