Realms of Habitation

Wave Over Wave is an evolving sound installation that McKeough has exhibited in several contexts and in slightly different configurations since its inception in 2002. While it is as immersive as her past installations, it differs in that the realm of habitation it describes is not contentious. Rather, Wave Over Wave functions as an abstracted landscape, a transcendent depiction of the ocean, a territory that is both of deep personal significance to the artist, and ultimately unknowable. The installation is comprised of layers of sound: the prow of a boat cutting through water, a 12-minute vocal cycle for 3 female voices, and the rhythmic tapping of 12 automated pairs of drumsticks. The vocal performance is the heart of the piece, capturing the ocean in three moods: a round evoking the regular crests and troughs of waves, a shimmering glissando like light glinting off of calm water, and a high beckoning fog-like chorus. But, as in Slipping By, a good measure of the work’s weight resides in the silences between the cycles of sound.

While much of McKeough’s work explores the conflicts that arise as our various zones of habitation collide, Wave Over Wave proposes a realm in which power struggles and coping strategies are immaterial. McKeough, whose father was a lobster fisherman, was raised near the sea, and like all those whose lives are linked to the ocean she is aware that none can claim its territory as their own.

Bibliography
Foucault, Michel. “Space, Power and Knowledge.” The Cultural Studies Reader. Ed. Simon During. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Hurtig, Annette. Rita McKeough: An Excavation. Calgary: Glenbow, 1994.

Lounder, Barbara. “Dancing on a Plate.” Dancing on a Plate. Rita McKeough. Corner Brook, NL: Sir Wilfred Grenfell Art Gallery, 1996

May, Louise. “Pacing Material Ambivalence.” Outskirts. Rita McKeough. Sackville, NB: Owens Art Gallery, 2003.

McKeough, Rita. Personal interview interviews. 15/May/2006; 18/May/2006.

Slipping By: performance excerpt. Prod. Kari McQueen. Perf. Rita McKeough. DVD. Stride Gallery & M:ST3, 2005.

Wark, Jayne. “Rita McKeough: A Ethics of Comparison.” Caught in the Act: an anthology of performance art by Canadian Women . Eds. Tanya Mars and Johanna Householder. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004.

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