Right, you should pick one up. I can see some have already done this. As seen here, Bigo’s A Score for Hands is a work that the audience is invited to engage with. So, I want to make a few requests before we start. This is a set of instructions, but you can call it insurance, a contract, or terms and conditions, too. You can’t be bothered, I know, but I hope you think of it like a Privacy Policy you’re asked to agree to when signing up online and pay attention to it.
I’m going to talk about hands. We call the end part of a vertebrate’s arm a hand. It usually comes in a pair. And the human hand, in particular, is further divided into five fingers. But we shouldn’t blindly trust the universality of our body. We should always have pictures in mind to show those who don’t have eyes, the food to serve to those whose tongues have been cut off, the handshake with those who have lost their hands.
Can we see with our hands? What we perceive is closely connected not only with our mind but also with our body. Especially, the hand is often associated with something being understood. For us, the world exists in the dynamic relationship between our body and brain. Therefore, if we utilize a certain variation of our body, will the world outside make a different sound as well?
There’s a gesture of joining the wriggling fingers into one mass. Using the gesture, you might whisper “amen” and reverently talk to God, or put on a friendly smile and say “namaste”, or cry “itadakimasu” in an elevated voice, or say ”khob khun ka”. Though I don’t know what’s behind the gesture, I’m sure it is useful. Then what would be another way to use it?
An experiment using our hands and body and our sense and cognition won't be very simple. You must be careful, or you might get hurt. Please read through the conditions below and provide your signature. What if I needed your signature because your hands could be cut off during the show? Would you sign here? You might just think of it as a part of a piece of eccentric contemporary art and, to hell with it, scribble your signature. It might turn out to be nothing but a slightly atypical visitors’ book, too. If you don’t mind, why don’t we sign three copies and keep one each?
- Taehyun Kwon
