Talya Feldman

After Halle

10-channel sound installation mounted on satin acrylic boards

2020

This sound installation was created in collaboration with 10 people, the artist included, who were among the survivors of a mass shooting in Halle, Germany on October 9, 2019 -- a shooting that targeted a local synagogue and kebab shop killing two people.

Mass shootings, broadly defined as incidents of gun violence where four or more people are shot and/or killed, have very quickly entered into a local and global discourse. For the United States, a country that sees on average one mass shooting every single day according to the latest 2019 statistics by Gun Violence Archive, these incidents have become normalized events hardly reported on in American media outlets.

Yet living in the dark shadow of Columbine, Aurora, and Highlands Ranch (to name only a few) the state of Colorado, perhaps more than most, understands the scars that mass shootings leave behind.

Through the voices of survivors, After Halle, like After Columbine is an attempt to reach those currently de-sensitized to the rapid rise in mass shootings on both a personal and geopolitical level. It is an attempt, in opening the wounds that continue to hit schools, clubs, movie theaters, and places of worship -- to offer healing.

The recordings you hear are the voices and melodies that were sung in the Halle synagogue on the day of the attack, on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. From a psychological approach, humming can be used as a form of self-soothing that helps shield both the survivor and the listener from trauma. The frames surrounding the speakers are in reference to the universal signifiers and codes of triage. These objective medical papers and colors associated with a patient’s level of need are recognized by the majority of hospitals and first responders around the world in times of crisis. However, the speakers and their wiring, like all survivors and victims of mass shootings, are left vulnerable and exposed.

Text by Talya Feldman, 2020