For the Deptford X Fringe Festival 2019 we made a wind chime and a series of frames. The show opened a week before October 31st, which was supposed to be Brexit day. The chimes, if played in a row, would ring, note by note, the chorus of Rule Britannia. Our aim was not to play that song. Indeed, it was never played, as the wind pushed the chimes into each other randomly, producing a completely different sound. It was important to us was to underline that the ideas of that jingoistic song, still underlie today’s events. Within those chimes were trapped aluminium characters, symbols of the lives affected by history and politics. We used these and the chimes to make the photograms. This text accompanied the show:
Each line of chimes plays out Rule Britannia.
B C C C
Rule Bri- tan- nia!
B C B A G F#
Bri- tan- nia rules the waves
D C B G C A D C B A G
Bri- tons ne- ver ne- ver, ne- ver, shall be slaves.
The chimes are a prison, with the jailer at the top. He stands over the others. He sees them trapped and hanged. He thinks this is normal and right. He does not realise that all the strings lead to him and that he too hangs.
We should not pity this man’s fate, for at the moment he still has the most space. All the lines linking him to the chimes, pass through others, like the venom, he that is many, spreads. Trying to convince us that in the past lies the future. A floating island he names Global Britain.
He says Let’s take back control. He says Breaking point. He talks about the good old times. He says Traitor, Surrender and points his hammy white finger. He says unshackle the chains, yet they all lead back to him.
Though some chimes may be aligned in the sequence of his song, others are already back to front. Backwards, like him.
The wind will never play his song and the chimes will tell a different tale.
