Video
4:06 min.
Slow and Painful is an appropriated grid of YouTube videos of nine people playing Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 on home pianos and keyboards. Exploring the tension between public and private, the individual videos heighten the uncomfortable feeling of voyeurism that often occurs when we’re given access to a stranger’s personal space. Taken together, the videos quickly descend into a dissonant cacophony, each player interpreting the composition in their own unique tempo and tuning. However, through the discordance there are moments of harmony – brief accents where notes or tones unite and push their way through the din. While the resulting chorus of performances creates something far more atonal than the original, Slow and Painful is really a celebration of interpretation, gesture, and artistic expression.