Artwork title : Recitation

Recitation is a cacophony of grief created from a prompt:

Write a letter to someone in your life that has passed away.

Since 2019, an international array of artists, nurses, teachers, strangers, and intimates, took up Truax’s prompt to write a letter to the dead. Several creative prompts followed, until each letter was translated over time by Truax into sound, movement, statement, space, rhythm, and surprise.

Set amidst a global pandemic, Recitation (2021) is layered with images, objects, audio recordings and materials siphoned from the years of letters, conversations, and creative exchanges. Occurring over 13-hours, the durational performance invites a suspended moment of discord, as Truax attunes to recitations on how to grieve.