RUTH K. BURKE
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      • The Process of Coming and Going in this World, 2018
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      • The Social Life of Meat, 2018
      • Itchy in the Grass, 2018
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      • Countering the Bull, 2016
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      • Window Into, 2017
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Picture
The Process of Coming and Going in this World, 2018
Site-specific four channel sound installation and farm meal

Link to excerpt from audio (apprx 2 min, adapted for stereo)

Link to full audio soundscape (apprx. nine minutes, adapted for stereo)


The Process of Coming and Going in this Worldexemplifies the paradoxical and site-specific nature of my work.The four-channel sound installation was housed in a three-sided shed in a large pasture, actively grazed by a handful of horses, ponies, and miniature donkeys. The work was inspired by Temple Grandin’s research on human-livestock interactions. To move animals, Grandin suggests using a non-threatening “shhh” sound. With this idea of human-animal collaboration in mind, the installation presents sites of embodied novelty experience for multiple species who have coevolved for thousands of years. “Shhh” sounds, along with quiet whispering and singing are recurring aural motifs in the soundscape; energetic audio of an auctioneer foreshadows Jeremiah the bull’s violent and distressed bellowing. 
​
In the bucolic environment of a pasture, the installation very much intends to create conditions in which the participants were presented with the entire life of an animal in the span of about nine minutes. The audio aims to be conflicting, to push listeners toward the emotional difficulty of bearing witness. Our relationship to plant and animal life (and a condition of being on this planet as humans) is simultaneously violent and loving. It is revolving and never static.  

Documentation video: https://vimeo.com/310425669


Gracious thanks to Ruth Ehman and the Firesign Farm Family.
With technical assistance from Isaac Levine.
© COPYRIGHT RUTH K BURKE STUDIOS. 2020
​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Work
    • Susurrus
    • In Heaven Love Comes First
    • Ruminant >
      • Keeping Everyone Comfortable, 2017
      • Forever Heifer, 2017
      • Trough, 2016
      • We are Flesh, Fat, and Blood, 2016
      • Closer to Closure, 2017
      • Bargaining Tool (2,000 lbs), 2016
    • Moving Image & Site-Specific >
      • Gift Economy, 2019
      • The Process of Coming and Going in this World, 2018
      • Quiet, 2018
      • Emblem of Rural Quiet, 2017
      • Connected Kingdoms, 2017
      • Boustrophedon, 2017
      • The Social Life of Meat, 2018
      • Itchy in the Grass, 2018
      • Gopi, 2015
      • Countering the Bull, 2016
      • Aleph, 2017
      • Window Into, 2017
    • Horses >
      • Herd, 2015
      • Herd II, 2016
      • Burgazada Ride, 2016
      • Epona, 2018
    • R&D
  • statement
  • about/cv
  • Contact
  • Black Lives Matter