Whining Wailing Lashes, a performance led by Raoni Muzho Saleh (1991), entails a space of a sensual kind of grief. In this space, Lashes, Raoni’s drag character who belongs to the tradition of professional mourners, weaves a sonic net of mournful cries and delirious wailing laughter. It’s in the whining and wailing of Lashes, the proof of the love for the person or thing lost. It’s the moaning which honors the cracks in our skin that have become valleys filled with loss, rage, sorrow and hysterical humor. Throughout the colorful poppy aspects of his work, Wald-Lasowski has woven his own personal experience of grief, loss and death. Since the public expression and embrace of grief is not encouraged in Western societies, Muzho Saleh’s research on moaning in its many forms is a deep inspiration for Wald-Lasowski. In order to activate a space of grief together, Lashes invited our visitors to bring a name of someone or something precious lost.
The performance was followed by an attempt to slow down the frenzied passing of time, as Lyckle de Jong (1990) took us on a live ambient listening journey.
