hong-kai wang

I Am Not A Very Good Extemporaneous Speaker; In Fact, I Am No Speaker At All

2011

Recorded performance, sound installation

50 minutes 42 seconds

Dear Pratella, What Do You Hear?, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Soong May-Ling, aka Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, began the second paragraph of a historic speech on February 18, 1943 with the statement, “I am not a very good extemporaneous speaker; in fact, I am no speaker at all.” With this speech, Soon May-Ling was the first Chinese national and second woman to address both houses of the U.S. Congress. Though Madame Chiang may have later faded into obscurity, at this pivotal moment, she spoke on behalf of the Chinese cause in a lobbying and fundraising campaign during World War II. She delivered a well-received speech articulated with empathetic, politically nuanced-words.

I Am Not A Very Good Extemporaneous Speaker...attempts to reenact this perhaps obscure historical event by reconstructing its specific social space through recording and listening- attempting to translate its historicity as well as investigating its contemporary resonance. Participants in the recording nevertheless took turns performing the roles of both speaker and audience, further complicating the aspects of communication translated across time, space, and bodies. In listening to this reenactment and recordings, against our own contemporary situation and in now retrospective reflection, what are the multiple meanings we may parse from this speech act? How might we now hear and reflect on the given social space of the recording, its historical referent, as well as the space of our own listening?

*Special thanks to the performance participants: Kelly Kivland, Nathan Lee, Courtney Malick, Dylan Peet, Alexandra Smith, and Ian Turner.

Text by Michelle Hyun

Installation view from Dear Pratella, what do you hear?, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1-22 May 2011. Master’s thesis exhibition curated by Michelle Y. Hyun. Photo: Chris Kendall 2011.