Rivane Neuenschwander
Sunday (Domingo)
In this video, a parrot chews on seeds printed with punctuation marks. A radio on the shelf in the background broadcasts the news of an unfolding football match. As the game (and video) progresses, the bird eats all of the remaining punctuation. Punctuation is, in a sense, never spoken, and here provides the visual accompaniment to disembodied action and voice. The parrot, as a silent but potential non-human speaker, here breaks down relentless stream of vocalized reporting.
Rivane Neuenschwander’s work foregrounds its inventive use of materials, often altering and manipulating them in novel ways: snails eat through rice paper, fish carry pieces of love letters, and prayer ribbons leave on museum visitors’ wrists. All of her projects—which are comprised of photography, film, or installation—refer back to cycles of human interaction, consumption, and sentiment.