Only Remains Remain, 2021, 15-person performance, 45:00. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk, Courtesy of MoMA PS1
An immersive, 45-minute performance addressing a contemporary tragedy through the characters of Antigone. The performance uses the structure of a Sophoclean chorus to communicate an elegy for the hundreds of unidentified migrants that were buried in mass graves in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Brooks County, Texas. The county buried these individuals, whose bodies were found on nearby farms, without following traditional burial standards, in mass graves that bear no names. In 2013, forensic anthropologist Dr. Lori Baker started to exhume the remains and ascertain, through DNA testing, the identities of the deceased. Baker and her team worked tirelessly to return the bodies to their families and offer a sense of closure, echoing the heroic Antigone defying the state to honorably bury her brother. Through an ensemble of 15 performers, the piece explores the mournful potential of the voice utilizing pitch, intonation, breath, movement, and silence. The chorus of women seeks to recognize the lives of those laid to rest as unknowns by addressing the silence of their burial and our complicity and grief in the process.
Production Assistance: Joy Salomon-Corlobe
Costumes: Liz Altman
choral direction: Samuel Lang Budin
Ensemble:
Aline Salloum
Cassandra DeMarco
Christine Romulus
Courtnie Alvarado
Hannah Bailey
Lindsey Mayberry
Natasha Thweatt
Kate Garfield
Caroline Burkhart
Natasha Walfall
Maria Lavalle
Allison Gish
Nina Dante
Shanna Iglesias
Laura Murphy
This performance is made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
“15 Minutes is our creative prompt. MoMA invites musicians, writers, and artists to produce an original work that takes about that long to watch or read or listen to. Powell made her contribution alongside the development of a live performance for her VW Dome Artist Residency at MoMA PS1, part of VW Sunday Sessions.”