xviiia-2. “The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits.”

—Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, 1942, trans. Justin O’Brien

This series is based on Samuel Beckett’s mute play Quad. Written for television, it was broadcast for the first time in 1981 and published in 1984. In this “piece for four players, light and percussion,” four anonymous performers dressed in coloured robes pace around and across a square stage. The choreography is precise, jolty, hypnotic, and cyclical.

Ankyloglossia is a condition in which the tongue’s movements are limited, most often due to a malformation of the frenulum, which can lead to difficulties in elocution. In Ankyloglossia (n. tongue-tie), Howes revisits Quad by incorporating choreographic elements inspired by protest strategies such as call and response. A specific movement (pile, curl, shake, free, base, foot, fold, and stack) is assigned to each performer (that is, parts of her body). The drawing presented here constitutes the first draft of the final piece: eight videos integrated inside as many black towers installed in a space inhabited by reverberating fantom steps. The final, full-length choreography lasts seven hours, six minutes, and thirty-nine seconds, and the score is written on a 230 x 42 cm sheet. The video shows dislocated body parts that, like insects in an entomology box, seek to express their identity despite the restrictions imposed upon them.

Exhibition History

• The Time it Takes
  2024
  Musee d'art de Joliette
  Joliette, CA

Related Publication

• The Time it Takes
  2024
  Ed.: Charlotte Lalou Rousseau, Guest Curator
  Musée d'art de Joliette
• Scores for Daily Living
  2020
  Ed.: Mark Soo
  K Verlag
• Ankyloglossia (n.tongue-tie)
  2014
  Ed.: Emma Waltraud Howes & Franziska Morlok
  Co-published by K. Verlag and Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH.
• Ankyloglossia (n. tongue-tie) e-book
  2015
  Ed.: Emma Waltraud Howes & Franziska Morlok
  Rimini Berlin